Natsu
by Ongaku Neko
Summary: Summer is a time for fun, laughter, and romance. Sakura has had fun and laughter, but now it's time for romance. There's only one problem; her best friend likes the same guy. Okay, so that's not the ONLY problem... S&S AU
1. Default Chapter

**Author:** Kitty Neko  
**Genre:** Romance/Humor  
**Pairing:** Sakura/Syaoran  
**Summary:** Summer is a time for fun, laughter, and romance. Sakura has had fun and laughter, but now it's time for romance. There's only one problem; her best friend likes the same guy. Okay, so that's not the ONLY problem... AU  
**  
Disclaimer:** I do not own Card Captor Sakura. I am not making any money off of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Sakura lay face down on the sofa with a little trickle of drool escaping from the corner of her mouth. The whole room was unearthly quiet except for the tick of the clock that matched the twitch in her left eye. It felt like she'd been there for hours when in reality it had probably been 30 minutes. She was bored out of her mind. Granted, doing nothing at home during summer vacation was better than being at school, but she still had nothing to do.

With a small huff, Sakura swung her legs over the side of the sofa and heaved herself into the sitting position… before promptly flopping on her back.

"Stop that," a teasing voice said from the doorway. "It makes me feel bad."

Sakura lifted her head only long enough to take in her mother's rumpled pajamas and disheveled hair and say, "Bah."

"Nice imprint on the side of your face, by the way." Nadesico smirked at her daughter and then let out a yawn that would make a lion proud, which was kind of what her mother's hair was making her think of at the moment.

Sakura tried not to yawn contagiously and asked, "What are you doing up? You barely went to sleep four hours ago."

"Oh, I'm not up," Nadesico assured. "I'm just going to get something to eat and it's right back to bed for me. I'm hoping to get at least another four hours."

"Great. Just peachy," Sakura mumbled and glanced out of the corner of her eye at the clock. It was barely noon.

Her mother had recently started working as a full-time nurse on the night shift at a nursing home, so she slept during the days. Even when she was awake she always seemed kind of sleepy. This put a crimp in the amount of time mother and child got to spend together.

"Why don't you get up and do something? Well, besides the fact that you'd actually have to get your lazy butt dressed," Nadesico asked while scratching her own butt in a most unattractive manner. It was a part of her personality that she shared exclusively with her daughter.

"There's nothing to do!" Sakura whined and rolled over on her stomach. She briefly considered taking a bite out of the sofa

Nadesico moved closer and smacked the unsuspecting girl on the bottom, electing a yelp. "Start a project."

"Like what?" Sakura grouched, rubbing her bum and glaring at her mother.

"Oh, I don't know." Nadesico started drifting off towards the kitchen. "Didn't you say something about wanting to paint your room green? I know that's a lot of work, but it's not like you have anything else to do."

Not wanting to lose her only human contact of the day, Sakura got up and followed her mother's retreating form. "With what? The gallons of paint supplies I conveniently keep up my arse at all times?"

Nadesico paused with her hand on the cupboard door and allowed her lips to twist in an amused smirk. "Sure. Sounds like a plan."

"Mom! Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be to get them out?" Sakura tried to suppress a chuckle at her own joke and failed. "But I'm partially serious. Where am I supposed to get the supplies? Dad and Touya aren't home and my car is at the shop, remember?" The stupid thing had a decided to break down right at the beginning of summer break. Things just seemed to be going her way.

"What about Syaoran? He has a truck." Nadesico stuffed a cracker in her mouth and almost spit it out when Sakura visibly shuddered. She swallowed and asked, "What was that about?"

"He's so _moody_ lately," Sakura admitted grudgingly.

"Give him a break." Nadesico went back to her munching on her crackers. "Your cousin is going through a hard time right now."

"Uh huh." Sakura rolled her eyes.

They weren't cousins by blood. Syaoran's stepfather was Sakura's uncle on her dad's side. If you understood all of that, pat yourself on the back. Usually they didn't have to see each other too often but the circumstances had changed. Syaoran's parents were currently having problems, so he came to live with Sakura's family for the summer - much to Sakura's chagrin. She felt a little sorry for him, but he didn't have to be such a bitch to her.

Sakura giggled a little to herself at the name-calling going on in her head.

"I'm serious." Nadesico broke into her thoughts. "Ask him to take you out. Lord knows the poor boy could use something to do. He's going to rot in that room of his."

If only. Sakura made a big show of sticking her finger down her throat and making retching noises.

"Fine." Her mission accomplished, the older woman put the box of crackers back in the cupboard and started walking away. "Spend your day all alone. No skin off my butt." And she was gone.

The silence in the house was deafening.

If she had been sitting, Sakura would have slumped over. Great, she could either sit around doing nothing or wake up her PMSing cousin and somehow convince him to stop moping and spend the day with her. Decisions, decisions.

"Not like I have anything to lose," Sakura said aloud herself with her mind made up, "certainly not his love and affection."

It didn't take her long to creep up the stairs and she found herself standing in front of Syaoran's room in no time flat. Hand shaking, she took hold of the cold brass knob and twisted it clockwise. She had no idea why her heart was thudding so hard; it wasn't like she was afraid of him. Taking in one last deep breath, she leaned her body weight against the door and it slowly creaked open.

The room was surprisingly dark for being in the middle of the afternoon, but that probably had something to do with the thick comforter draped over the window. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust and she sucked in a breath when she could finally see. It had never occurred to her that Syaoran would be one of those guys who liked to sleep in his boxers. At least, she _hoped_ he was wearing boxers. He was lying with his back towards her and the covers pulled up to his waist, so she couldn't tell for sure.

"Syaoran?"

There was no response. Against her natural instincts, Sakura crept closer until she was hovering about a foot over him. "Syaoran?" Nothing. "Syaor-"

"Go away," Syaoran grumbled and pulled the covers over his head. "And don't breathe on me; your breath smells like ass."

What was everybody's fascination with butts today?

Sakura felt her face heat up with anger and had to clench her fists to stop herself from reaching out and strangling the life out of his worthless body. "Fine," she said through gritted teeth. She berated herself on the short trek back to the door. Why had she come in here against her better judgment? It had all been for nothing!

Syaoran was silent until she almost reached the door. "You really should consider losing some weight, Sakura. I could hear your footsteps from the stairs."

In Sakura's mind, that was just crossing the line. She knew she wasn't fat but ever since she got a little overweight in Junior High, it had been a touchy subject - never mind that she had since gotten healthy and in shape. Retaliation was in order. Struck by sudden genius, Sakura flicked the lights on and enjoyed Syaoran's cry of agony.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Not quite finished, Sakura took a running leap and landed on Syaoran's bed. She then proceeded to jump around like it was a trampoline. "Fat, am I? I ought to fall on you and squish you like the bug you are!"

Syaoran was wide-awake now and looking at her like she was insane. The covers were completely off of him now. "Nice boxers," Sakura said before leaping off the bed gracefully and skipping to the door. Just as she was leaving, she stuck her tongue out and said, "Too bad there's nothing in them."

Her glory was short lived. Back in the living room, Sakura sat down and shut her eyes. That whole ordeal hadn't done much for her boredom problem. Now she still didn't have anything to do and would probably have to deal with a pissy cousin.

When there was still no sign of Syaoran five minutes later, she was able to breathe a sigh of relief in hopes that she was off the hook. Unfortunately, it was a little premature. Just seconds after the thought crossed Sakura's mind she heard a door slam upstairs. She didn't actually see Syaoran enter the room since her eyes were closed, but she felt his presence and she definitely felt him flop down next to her on the sofa.

"What do you want?" she barked.

"That's my question."

"What?" Sakura finally looked at him and vaguely registered that he had clothes on now.

Syaoran quirked an eyebrow in her direction. "Please tell me you had a reason for that delightful wake-up call."

"Oh." Sakura leaned back and examined her cuticles. "Never mind."

"Never mind?" Syaoran repeated, annoyance becoming increasingly obvious in his voice. "You wake me up and then say 'never mind'?"

Sakura shot him a look from the corner of her eye. "I said 'never mind' because I know there's no way you're going to say yes. I was stupid for thinking you would in the first place."

"Try me."

"No."

"Sakura! Stop being childish."

It took a lot of will power for Sakura not to say 'I'm not being childish, you are!', but she somehow managed. "Fine."

There was a long pause.

"Go on."

"Shut up. I will when I'm ready." Sighing loudly, Sakura rolled her eyes and said, "I was wondering if you would help me paint my room."

"Sure, why not?"

"Eh?" Sakura's head shot up in surprise. "You'll do it?"

Syaoran shrugged. "I have nothing else to do." He paused and leaned closer so that there were only a couple of inches between them, letting his amber eyes narrow, "but don't think I'm going to forgive and forget this morning so soon."

Sakura's stomach did an odd flip-flop that she chalked up to nausea from being so close to his face. Unwilling to be the first to back down, she steadily stood her ground and said, "That's fine by me. I don't really give a damn what you forgive and forget. That's your problem. And it's not morning, you dumbass."

The corner of Syaoran's mouth curved up ever so slightly. "We'll see," he said.

* * *

"This is so relaxing," Syaoran said sarcastically from his side of the wall. Sakura chose to ignore him since he was being an idiot.

The whole day had been stressful. Not only had it taken them forever to get to the store and pick out the color of paint that she wanted, but when they got to the register she had realized that her wallet was missing. No doubt it had fallen out of her purse and was sitting happily in her room. Not wanting to drive all the way back home, she had been forced to borrow money from Syaoran. The smug bastard had taken pleasure in informing her that she now owed him big time. And that was just the beginning.

Once they had finally made it home, they had to take all of her heavy furniture out of her room and attempt to lay down a tarp. And throughout it all they had argued. At one point Sakura had contemplated scrapping the whole project and just using the tarp to wrap his body in. By the time they actually started painting Sakura was ready for a very long nap.

"Uh, Sakura?"

"What?" Sakura snapped and swiveled around to look at the current bane of her existence.

"Well, if you're going to take that tone with me, nothing." Syaoran looked away from her and resumed painting, but this time there was a very large smirk pasted on his face.

"Fine. Don't expect me to beg you or anything," Sakura muttered and went back to work. The paint looked uneven in front of her so she went over it again with her brush.

"I think we're just about through with the bottom part of this wall. All we have to do is the top," Syaoran commented a while later.

"So it would seem."

"I'll do it," Syaoran said, coming over to her.

"Why?" Sakura asked, suspecting that he wasn't doing it out of the kindness of his heart.

"Because you are short."

"I'm not short!" Sakura protested. "Five, four is not short."

"Well, it's not tall," Syaoran quipped.

Refusing to let him win that easily, Sakura said, "What does it matter how tall I am anyways? Whoever does it is going to have to use the ladder either way."

"Yes, but…" Syaoran drifted off.

Sure she was going to regret this, Sakura winced and asked, "But?"

"I'm afraid you might break the ladder."

Sakura roared in indignation and took a swing at him. Syaoran easily dodged it and just laughed at her. Sakura would have tried again, but she was having problems; her swinging at him had caused her to lose balance and she was about to fall against the freshly painted wall. Syaoran noticed just in time and, with quick reflexes, grabbed her upper arm to steady her.

"Thanks," Sakura muttered barely audible, but he still heard it.

Laughing, Syaoran helped her to her feet. "Now you really owe me." Since Sakura had no reply he continued, "You can start by getting me something to drink. I'm parched."

Glad for an excuse to leave the paint fumes, Sakura nodded and was out of there in a flash. In the kitchen she was greeted by the sight of her brother, Touya, and his best friend Yukito.

"When did you get back?" Sakura asked, coming up to them.

"Just now," Touya replied. His eyes flickered down and then back to her face. "Having fun?"

"Not really," Sakura answered. "I'm finally painting my room."

"Oh really, I never would have guessed. All by yourself?" Touya looked away, a constipated expression on his face that might have been caused by a suppressed grin.

"No, Syaoran's helping me."

"Ah."

Sensing that the conversation was over, Sakura turned to her brother's friend. "Hey, Yukito. How are you? I haven't seen you in a while."

"Eh?" Yukito was staring below Sakura's neck and it took a minute for him to get his bearings. "Oh, um, I'm fine."

"Okay," Sakura said slowly. As soon as she said it, his gaze went back down. A light pink hue appeared on her cheeks. She may have had a crush on him when she was younger, but for him to so obviously be staring at her chest was a little too much! Besides, she hadn't thought he was that kind of guy.

"Uh, right." Sakura spun on her heel and went to the fridge to get a soda. "I need to get back to work, so, I'll, uh, see you later, I guess." Awkward as hell, but there was nothing she could do about it.

About to make a speedy exit, Sakura was stopped by Touya's voice. "By the way Sakura, you have paint on your shirt."

Sakura went ridged. She could almost hear her neck creak as she looked down to see two neat green circles on her boobs. Everything suddenly made sense. Her face turning beet red, she thanked her brother and made a hasty retreat.

The whole walk back to her room was filled with murderous intents for a certain cousin of hers.

* * *

It didn't take Sakura long to discover that the living room was hot and stuffy at night. So far she had spent the whole night tossing and turning on the sofa trying to get comfortable and somehow get some air circulation at the same time.

"Why is it so hot?" She whined, quickly losing her temper and kicking her covers to the floor. Her whole body was covered in sweat and it felt disgusting.

The painting project wasn't quite finished, but she wouldn't have been able to stay in her room anyways because of the unbearable paint fumes. Since Syaoran currently inhabited her house's guest room, she was left with the sofa. Thoughts of locking her dear cousin in her room with the paint fumes and sleeping in the guest room crept to the front of her mind.

"Not like he could damage any more brain cells."

Sakura groaned as the grandfather clock did its chimes for three in the morning. "That's it," she muttered, picking at her sticky tee shirt. "To survive this night, I'm either going to have to go naked or change into something smaller." No debate there.

That decided, she hopped off the couch and tiptoed up the stairs to her room. She passed Syaoran's door on the way and almost kicked it out of petulance.

Luckily, her dresser was within easy access and she quickly rummaged through it for something. After pulling her oversized shirt off, she slipped the silky black spaghetti strap undershirt that she had found. It helped a little bit, but she was still hot and all her pajama shorts were in the laundry.

"Guess it's the underwear and tank top look for me tonight." She quickly tugged off the flannel pants she was wearing and blanched at her new problem; she was wearing her most worn light blue and white cotton panties. "That won't do."

Sakura opened her top drawer and had to dig around for a while before finding what she was looking for: a pair of black silk panties that her mom and gotten for her and she usually never wore.

All done with her wardrobe change, she made her way back to her accommodations for the night.

"Ah, much better." She snuggled into her nest and started to doze off.

It couldn't have been more that thirty minutes later that she was roused from her sleep by someone banging around in the kitchen.

"You have got to be kidding me," Sakura said pathetically and stuffed a pillow over her face; it didn't work and she was suffocating. With a grunt of frustration, she rose to her feet and headed for the kitchen to find the perpetrator and tell them off.

"Hello," Syaoran said around his mouthful of sandwich.

"What the hell are you doing up this early?" Sakura demanded, arms akimbo.

"You don't waste any time on small talk do you?" Syaoran took a sip of water without removing his eyes from her. It was a little disconcerting.

"_This_ is wasting my time. I want to sleep!" The last sentence came out pitiful.

"Then sleep," Syaoran muttered. "Don't let me and my midnight snack keep you from your rest."

"First of all, it's not midnight," Sakura said, just to argue, "and second, how am I supposed to sleep with you banging around in the kitchen? I'm a very light sleeper!"

"Oh, who are you trying to kid?" Syaoran stuffed another bite of sandwich in his mouth and continued to talk. "Your brother told me about the time you slept through tornado sirens. 'Just five more minutes, Touya'." This last part was said in an exaggerated falsetto.

"Oh, shut up."

"What are you going to do?" Syaoran said, standing up. "Shake up another one of my sodas?" That had been her form of retaliation for him letting her walk around with paint on her boobs. "It's not my fault you don't have any feeling in your boobs to tell you when they're pressing up against something. What were you trying to do, make out with the wall? Your boobs aren't big enough to just naturally stick out there."

Sakura frowned, a deep crease forming on her forehead. "My boobs have plenty of feeling and they're bigger than they look."

Syaoran didn't reply and instead moved so that he was almost pressed up against her. Sakura tried take a step backwards, but found a firm hand on her back holding her in place.

"What are you doing?" She seemed to be asking that question a lot lately.

Instead of answering, Syaoran raised his other hand and traced a straight line from her chin down to her belly button with his index finger. A shiver shot down her spine that she couldn't suppress. Her mind went numb for a minute and didn't focus again until she felt his finger tracing the curve under her breast. Their eyes met.

She could have stopped him if she wanted, but she didn't. For some strange reason that she would not be able to explain later, she didn't want him to stop. His touch disappeared, only to return a second later as he cupped the swell of her breast and squeezed gently.

The numb mind thingy came back, full force. She thought she might have let out a gasp but she wasn't sure.

'He's your cousin, for goodness sake!' Sakura mentally berated herself, while another part of her retorted, 'Not by blood.'

The warmth Syaoran's body brought moved away and Sakura opened her eyes, vaguely realizing that she had shut them at some point. Although she was breathing hard, Syaoran looked completely composed.

"You're right," he said, and then clarified because of her dumfounded expression. "They _are_ bigger than they look."

And with that, he finished off his glass of water and left the kitchen, calling over his shoulder. "Nice pajamas, by the way. Pleasant dreams."

Yeah right, Sakura mused, feeling a migraine starting to form. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Sakura couldn't remember the last time she had been so nervous, anxious, and jumpy all at the same time. It might have been when she was four years old and watched her first scary movie, but those feelings weren't quite the same as the dread she was experiencing now.

What did she have to dread? Finishing her painting project with Syaoran. Why was that such a big deal? She was completely terrified to be left alone with him. After he groped her and went back to bed, she had been unable to fall back to sleep. Instead, she spent the rest of the night brooding and turning the facts over in her mind.

Why did he do that? They were cousins! Why didn't she stop him? Was it possible that she actually _liked_ it? No! His favorite past time was making her life miserable and, besides, they were cousins! Then again… they weren't cousins by blood.

Needless to say, she was about to go insane by the time 6:00 a.m. rolled around. As soon as the big hand hit 12, she hopped out of bed to make breakfast - hoping the busy work would occupy her mind.

The first one of her family members to appear was her mother who was coming back from work. Nadesico went to her room to change her clothes and inadvertently woke her husband in the process. She returned to the kitchen to sit on a bar stool and salivate as she watched her daughter whip up a masterpiece.

"It smells delicious. What cha' making?" Nadesico took another big whiff of the fumes to prove her point.

"Pancakes, eggs, and bacon. And who said you get any?" Sakura asked, brandishing her spatula like a sword.

Her mother's eyes filled with crocodile tears. "You're so cruel! And after I went to work to slave and earn money so we can live! You impudent, ungrateful, little-"

"I was just kidding," Sakura cut her off quickly. She was grateful when her dad and brother soon appeared.

"Wow," her dad, Fujitaka, said. "Everything looks great. It's a perfect way to start the day before going to work."

"Or to end it," Nadesico added, her hands creeping towards the finished pancakes before Sakura smacked it with the spatula.

"Is it almost done?" Touya asked without offering any compliments. Sakura glared at the back of his head.

"Yes." She shoved a stack of plates and silverware in his hands and said, "Why don't you be a big helper and set up the table for me, hm?"

Touya rolled his eyes, but complied. It was too early in the morning for him and he was still half asleep.

"Why don't you wake up Syaoran?" Nadesico asked suddenly. "It would be a shame for him to miss such a good meal."

The feelings of dread came back and hit Sakura like a slap in the face. "Um…" she tried to think of an excuse quickly. "He's not used to being up this early! I don't think he would appreciate being woken up."

"Nonsense," Sakura's dad argued. "I think he really wouldn't appreciate being left out of this family meal."

Annoyance started to overpower the dread in her stomach. "Fine. If you want him up so badly, you wake him up! I'm busy cooking."

"Oh, there's no need for that," a voice said from behind Sakura and she jumped a mile high.

"Syaoran!" Nadesico said, surprised and happy at the same time. "What are you doing up?"

"I smelled the delicious smells of food and couldn't help myself. Besides, I've decided that I'm going to be waking up earlier from now on."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Nadesico grinned. As far as she was concerned, this was progress. "Now Sakura won't be all by herself in the mornings. Isn't that great honey?" The last question was directed at Sakura.

"Peachy," Sakura said through gritted teeth and grimaced when she felt Syaoran put his hands on her shoulders from behind.

"That was the idea," he said, directed towards the adults. When they smiled at him and turned away he leaned closer to Sakura, putting his lips right by her ear and whispered, "It's nice to know how much you wanted me to join you for breakfast."

Sakura was in too much shock to answer. His breath was tickling the whole right side of her face, not to mention blowing in her ear and she felt paralyzed. Just when Touya finished setting the table and turned to look at them, Syaoran let go of her and made to sit down. Touya followed his movements with untrusting eyes, but didn't say anything. The adults, of course, were oblivious.

Sakura forced her feet to unglue themselves from the floor so she could finish putting all the food on the table. Once everyone was served, they indulged in pleasant conversation. Sakura was tuning out for the most part until she heard her name.

"Excuse me?" she said, her mouth full of egg.

Her dad gave her a funny look. "I was just asking if you and Syaoran were planning to finish painting your room after breakfast."

Everyone was looking at her. Syaoran had a smirk on his lips and she felt herself start to sweat. "Uh." she stuttered. "No, not right away. I have to do the dishes and then a couple of other chores as well." She laughed nervously.

"Like what?" Touya asked, disbelievingly. It was a little known fact that Sakura tended to shirk on her part of the chores around the house. Sakura made a mental note to spit in the next meal she cooked for him.

"Like…" Why was her brain failing her at a time like this? What did she ever do to it? "I… I need to clean the pool!" She finally said triumphantly.

"Actually..." Syaoran leaned over Sakura, reaching for the syrup. "It's my turn to do it, but you can help."

"That's a great idea!" Nadesico praised. "It'll go by much faster. Plus, he's helping you paint your room, so you might as well help him with a few of his chores as well."

Afraid that she would just dig herself into a deeper hole, Sakura barely managed to make the next words leave her mouth. "I also need to go for a run to burn off this breakfast."

The Kinomotos rolled their eyes since they were very well acquainted with Sakura's obsession to stay in shape, but Syaoran just smiled. "How far do you go?"

"Two miles without stopping," Sakura said proudly, some of the nervousness dissipating.

"Well, that sounds fun!" Sakura's stomach dropped down to her feet. "I haven't been very active this summer and I need to. You care if I go with you?"

"Fine!" Sakura leaped to her feet. "I don't care! I give up! I'm going to take a dump now, if you don't mind."

All the males at the table blanched and looked disgusted, but Nadesico just grinned and said sweetly, "Don't you mean _leave_ a dump? I'm sure you don't want to _take_ it and have to carry it around all day."

There was no reply.

* * *

Syaoran said nothing as Sakura handed him the dishes she had just rinsed and put them in the dishwasher. There was a smug grin she was dying to wipe off his face, but was unfortunately incapable of doing. He basically had her kidnapped for the entire day. Her whole family was either asleep or at work so she was left in his evil clutches.

"Well," Syaoran said at last, putting the final dish in and starting the wash cycle. "What should we do first? Go for a run or clean the pool?"

Lucky for Sakura, she had been considering this particular question since breakfast and had finally come up with a solution. "_First_, I'm going to give someone a call."

"Who?" Syaoran asked, a strange tone slipping in his voice.

"You'll find out," Sakura said simply and plucked the cordless phone off the receiver. She dialed a familiar number by heart and listened to the ring, hoping the one she was calling was awake.

"What do you want, Sakura?" Tomoyo's sleepy and grouchy voice answered the phone after a long time. She didn't bother saying hello because her cell phone's ring tone already let her know who it was.

"Hey Tomoyo!" Sakura enjoyed the crestfallen look on Syaoran's face with no small amount of satisfaction. "Did I wake you up?"

"Yes," Tomoyo answered bluntly.

"I'm sorry." Sakura half-lied. "But I'm calling to see if you wanted to come over today and swim or something."

"This couldn't wait?"

"No." There was a very loud sigh from the other side of the line. "Please?" Sakura begged and tried to ignore the sour look that had appeared on Syaoran's face.

Tomoyo was quiet while she considered until she asked, "Is your cousin there today?"

Not sure what that had to do with anything Sakura answered slowly, "Yea."

"Okay." There were sounds of movement as Tomoyo dragged herself out of bed. "I'll be over in a few hours. I have to take a bath and stuff."

"To swim?"

"Goodbye, Sakura."

"Bye."

Sakura pressed the 'end' button and chanced a glance at Syaoran. By now he looked like someone had just forced him to eat tar.

"What's with your face?" She asked, cracking a joke.

"Out of all the people in the world, why her?" He asked, but continued before Sakura could defend her friend. "Is it that bad being alone with me?"

Sakura tried once again to speak but he cut her off. "Get dressed. We might as well get started before she gets here and slows everything down."

Dumbfounded, Sakura couldn't even make herself yell at him for being a bossy jerk. Instead she just watched as he walked away.

"What crawled up his butt and died?" She asked the empty kitchen.

* * *

"You" huff "freaking" pant "LIAR!" Sakura managed to choke out between gasps for air as she tried to match Syaoran's pace. "There's… no way… I believe… you haven't… been… running… lately."

"Stop talking, Sakura. You need all the oxygen you can get or you might die." He paused and added as an afterthought, "Do you want to slow down or stop?"

"Hell no!" There was no way she was going to let him best her at this.

Syaoran laughed, pulled in the lead a little and jumped in the air, tapping his heels together. "Come on, you try it!"

Sakura resisted the urge to bite him and just concentrated on breathing. Syaoran turned around so that he was running backwards and could look at her. "Don't try to compete, Sakura. You'll lose. I can run five miles without stopping."

Gathering all the air she could, she bit out, "Turn around, queer boy, and watch where you're going before you're hit by a random bus. On second thought…"

"Nah. I'll be okay." Syaoran flashed a grin that showed his teeth. "I know you wouldn't let the big, bad bus maim and kill me."

Sakura would have said 'try me' if she had enough oxygen. Syaoran chuckled deep in his throat and fell into step behind her.

She just couldn't figure the boy out. The way he treated her kept changing drastically. He was mean to her, he groped her, and then got all pissy when she invited her best friend to spend the day with them. When she had finished getting dressed, he came down stairs acting as if the whole conversation about Tomoyo had never happened. She had been confused and didn't want to bring it up, so the subject remained untouched.

"Come on!" Syaoran said and she realized she had fallen behind. "Let's get back to the house and finish painting your room."

Sakura growled and picked up the pace so she could catch up.

A couple hours later found them back to work in her room, the CD player blaring. Sakura glanced at the clock. "Tomoyo will be here soon," She said timidly.

Syaoran grunted without looking at her and continued to work. Sakura got the impression that he was still ticked off, but didn't want to talk about it. That was fine by her. What right did he have to get mad at her for wanting to spend time with her friend?

Sakura frowned, spreading the green liquid across the wall. Just then, the doorbell rang and she managed to splatter a few drops that undoubtedly landed on her face and arms.

Without bothering to say anything since Syaoran knew who was at the door as well as she did, she got up and went to let her friend in.

When Sakura swung the door open, Tomoyo stood in all her glory; silky long black hair, short shorts revealing smooth white legs, a bag slung over her shoulder, and dark sunglasses covering her eyes.

"Hey," Sakura said, redoing her messy ponytail and tucking a stray strand behind her ear.

"What's that smell?" Tomoyo asked, her pert little nose wrinkling up. She even managed to make looking disgusted cute.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." Sakura smacked her hand on her forehead. "I'm painting my room, but we're almost finished so we can go swimming in a minute."

"I don't think I just smell paint. It smells like… sweat."

"Oh." Sakura laughed. "That's me. I went for a run and cleaned the pool."

"Ah."

It got quiet and Sakura started to squirm. "Well, I guess I shouldn't leave Syaoran in there doing all the work for long. Come on." She motioned for Tomoyo to follow her.

"Syaoran's helping you? That's weird," Tomoyo commented thoughtfully. "I thought he hated you."

"I don't think he hates me. I think he just likes tormenting me. But there's something I've got to tell you later, okay?" If there was anyone she could tell about Syaoran's strange behavior lately, it was Tomoyo.

"Sure," Tomoyo said.

They entered Sakura's room and Syaoran looked up. "Hi," he said, and continued painting.

"Hi," Tomoyo said sweetly. "Long time no see. It's been a while."

"Yeah."

Syaoran and Tomoyo had met many times before, mainly at family dinners that Tomoyo had come to. Although the two weren't cold to each other, they weren't exactly what you would call buddies.

"Well, I'm all finished here," Syaoran said, and got up.

"It's done?" Sakura asked, disbelieving.

"Yep, all done. Now you two can go swimming." He began to pick up the painting supplies and Sakura bent down to help him.

"Why don't you join us?" Tomoyo asked, being careful not to brush up against anything that had paint on it.

"I don't know." When Syaoran said this, he somehow managed to catch Sakura's eye and held it. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Of course! It's fun with more people, right Sakura?" Tomoyo turned her head to look at her friend.

Sakura was quiet for a moment. She had been trying to avoid Syaoran all day and failed miserably, but it hadn't been that bad. It wasn't like it would be just the two of them. Tomoyo could be a buffer.

"Right," Sakura said, her gaze never leaving Syaoran's. His expression twitched slightly and he looked away, moving towards the door.

"I guess I'll meet you guys out there then."

Sakura nodded even though she knew he couldn't see and Tomoyo waved.

* * *

"Well that was fun," Tomoyo said while wringing her long hair out over the sink. Sakura grunted in a way that could have been an affirmative or a contradiction. "Syaoran made it more entertaining."

"Oh yes," Sakura agreed. "Getting thrown in the pool against my will is just so pleasurable."

"Well." Tomoyo flipped her hair over her shoulder, whacking Sakura's face in the process. "Just be happy that he could pick you up."

Sakura's mouth dropped open in shock. "Tomoyo! That's mean!"

Tomoyo blinked slowly and then laughed when it dawned on her what had offended Sakura. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant that you should be happy you're light enough for him to pick you up." As opposed to him being strong enough to pick up her lard butt.

"Sure," Sakura said sarcastically.

"You know…" Tomoyo turned around to face her friend and pulled herself up so she was sitting on the countertop. "Syaoran is pretty hot."

Sakura's mouth fell open again at the sudden unexpected change in the conversation. "E-excuse me?"

Tomoyo rolled her eyes good naturedly. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed? Come on! You live in the same house!"

Sakura did her best to look disgusted but couldn't stop the slight blush from rising on her cheeks. "He's my cousin. I don't think about him like that."

"I see." Tomoyo swung her legs from side to side. "Well in that case, I think I'll go for him. You'll help me, right?"

"Wha?" Sakura was a little confused.

"Of course I knew you would," Tomoyo paused, as if trying to remember something. "Didn't you have something you wanted to tell me earlier?"

Still thinking rather slowly, it took Sakura a moment to catch on. When she did a mental picture of Syaoran cupping her breast came to mind and she thought better of it. "Oh, never mind, it's not important."

"Okay." Tomoyo hopped down and stretched her back. "If that's it, I'm going home. Call me sometime soon. We haven't been doing too much together lately."

"Sure." Sakura walked with her to the door and locked the door behind her. Sighing, she rotated her shoulder blade. "Why am I so sore? Stress?" All of a sudden a nice, steamy bath sounded wonderful. The much needed escape make Sakura almost skip the whole way to the bathroom.

It didn't take long for the tub to fill up and Sakura soon found herself submerged in the almost scorching liquid. It was so hot that when she raised her arm from the water, steam came off in waves.

Sakura just sat there, relaxing for five minutes before going about the task of washing and conditioning her hair. She did all of this with a relatively blank mind, but when she got to the shaving, her mind began to wonder.

Tomoyo liked Syaoran? The first question that came to her mind was: why? The second was: for how long?

"I'll never understand her," Sakura mumbled to herself. Sakura and Tomoyo had been best friends since kindergarten and practically grew up together. They had been inseparable up until junior high when their different interests became obvious. They hadn't had one class together since eighth grade, and that was tennis. Since then, Tomoyo had quit and Sakura had gone on to be the top player for their high school.

Sakura couldn't help feeling that they kept growing farther apart and it hurt. She didn't want to lose her friend. Besides, being friends doesn't mean having everything in common. No two people are the same, so there are bound to be differences between friends.

Although their extracurricular interests had big points of disagreement, the biggest difference between the two girls was their experience with boys. Sakura was usually always busy with either school or tennis so she hadn't really had any time for relationships, but Tomoyo was another story. She had had several boyfriends and was no longer a virgin. Tomoyo was far from being a slut but she tended to treat Sakura like she was naïve because of her experience.

Sakura rinsed her razor and began to put soap on her back, since she didn't like having back hair. That was the bad thing about fair skin – hair was harder to hide.

So, this all brought her back to her original question. Tomoyo liked Syaoran? Was Tomoyo Syaoran's type? Honestly, she had no idea. If she was, would they 'hook up'? And if they did, would they kiss? Or even do more than kiss?

At that particular thought, Sakura's arm jerked and she felt a searing pain on her upper back. She reached up and touched the throbbing with her middle and index fingers. She brought them back to her face to see that they were covered in quite a bit of blood.

"Shit." Quickly, Sakura hopped out of the tub and wrapped a towel around her body, being careful to leave the cut uncovered. Going up to the mirror, she had to crane her neck to see the wound better. She blanched at the blood that was trickling out of the long gash on her upper back, a place she couldn't possibly clean and bandage on her own.

"Double shit."

With a growl that was almost inhuman, she left the bathroom and went downstairs to find Syaoran. He was sitting at the computer and when she came up to him only wearing a little white towel, his eyes got rather large.

"Sakura, what are you doing?" Without a word, Sakura turned around so he could see the cut. "Oh crap! What did you do?"

"I cut myself with the razor," Sakura mumbled, inaudibly.

"What?" Syaoran asked, now standing.

Sakura sighed and said louder, "I cut myself with the razor."

There was silence for a moment before Syaoran's loud guffaws filled the computer room. "What were you doing? Shaving your back?"

"Shut up and help me bandage it up! I'm getting blood all over the place!"

"Alright," Syaoran said, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. "Come with me."

After a quick trip to the bathroom for some supplies, they went into Syaoran's room. "What are we doing in here?" Sakura asked, her hands clamped on her towel.

Syaoran rolled his eyes. "You have to lie down. I can't clean and bandage it while you're standing."

"But!"

Syaoran ignored her and put down another towel on his bed. "Lay down on your stomach."

"But!" Sakura saw a problem with this. For him to properly take care of her cut, she would have to remove the towel from the whole top half of her body.

"Look," Syaoran explained, clearly sensing her discomfort. "I'll turn around and you can lie down and cover your butt with the towel. I'll only turn back around when you say it is okay."

"Fine," Sakura said, only a little shaky. She didn't want to seem like a wimp. As he said he would, Syaoran turned and Sakura timidly took off the towel. Damn, she felt awkward. Even if he wasn't looking, she was naked and in the same room with a boy. Lying down gingerly, she positioned the towel so it was completely covering her backside and pressed herself fully against the bed. Her breasts were smashed against the bed and very visible from the side, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"Okay, you can look," Sakura said against her better judgment. She watched closely as Syaoran turned and his expression didn't change in the slightest. Instead, he just grabbed a little packet and tore it open. "What's that?" Sakura asked.

"Something to disinfect the cut." He moved behind her so she couldn't see him anymore.

The first thing Sakura felt was his warm arm against her side as he braced himself against the bed. It was a little too close to her boob for comfort and her breath quickened but he made no move to feel her up. The next thing she felt was a cool wetness pressing against the gash on her back and then…

"SHIT!" Sakura yelled, and it took all her willpower to keep from jumping to her feet. "What the hell was that?" Whatever it was, it had stung like hell.

"An alcohol prep pad, you wuss," Syaoran stated calmly. "Now relax so I can finish."

The two cousins sat in silence for a while until Syaoran said, "You know, I think Tomoyo's wrong."

"About what?" Sakura asked, her voice muffled slightly by the bed.

"Your tan."

"Oh." Sakura had a dark tan (well, dark for her) from playing tennis, but the problem was that it was in the shape of her tennis clothes that came in a curved line down her back, and exposed her shoulders. "What about it?"

"I don't think it's that funny. In fact…" Syaoran leaned closer and Sakura felt her whole back tingle. Warning signs were going off in her brain, but she was powerless to stop it. "I think it's sexy. It shows that you're active."

Sakura couldn't think of anything to say to that and just whispered, "Thanks."

"No problem. It's the truth." Syaoran moved away and Sakura missed the warmth at once. He finished putting the bandage on, but made no move to leave.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked and got a weird sense of de ja vu. It took her a moment to realize she had asked him the question the previous night.

"_What are you doing?" she seemed to be asking that question a lot lately._

_Instead of answering, Syaoran raised his other hand and traced from her chin in a straight line down to her belly button with his index finger. _

Sakura's breath caught in her throat when she realized what was about to happen. Sure enough, Syaoran's warm hands came down on her back and slowly slid down her sides, following the curve of her ribcage, waist, and hips, but stopped at the towel. Instead they slid between her and the bed so his palms were pressing against her stomach.

Sakura's heart was pounding in her chest so hard, she was afraid her ribs would bust. "Syaoran-"

"Shh," Syaoran practically purred, his lips right at the curve of her neck. Sakura finally exhaled the breath she had been holding when she felt another cool wetness, but this time it was his lips against her back. He left a few fleeting butterfly kisses and pulled away at the same time as a door opened and closed somewhere in the house.

"Your mom is awake."

Syaoran left the room, leaving Sakura in the aftermath and wondering what the heck had just happened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Sakura had a plan. She had come up with it in the restless hours between consciousness and sleep (since there was no way she was going to be able to sleep anyways) and decided to put it into action immediately to try and get her out of this sticky situation. The plan's name was 'Operation Avoid Syaoran Like the Plague'.

What did you expect? She had come up with it when she was severely sleep-deprived so it wasn't going to be the equivalent to nuclear physics. The point was that she had a plan at all.

There was no way she was going to allow these kinds of things to continue. There were just _too many_ negative aspects. For one, Tomoyo had _just_ told her that she was interested in Syaoran and… and… he was her cousin! Yea! That's a good one. Besides, she wasn't even sure how she felt. Any reaction she had to him was probably just teenage hormones and she was not going to fall prey to them!

Sakura let out a very quiet sound of agony and pulled the covers over her head. Maybe she would suffocate and never have to deal with any of this ever again. Or she could just sleep all the time. That was actually the first part to Operation Avoid Syaoran Like the Plague; sleep late until somebody else (Mom, Dad, or Touya) were home so she wouldn't have to be alone with her sneaky, seducing step-cousin.

It was barely eight o'clock and she was already going crazy with restlessness. As much as she loved to sleep, she had never been able to sleep in because she loved being awake just as much. Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling was absolute torture.

No! Sakura thought to herself, determined. Being bored to death was better than having to face Syaoran.

Just as this particular thought was going through her head, Sakura heard the doorknob to her room twist open slowly and a soft thud noise as someone pushed her door open.

"Sakura, sweetie?" a distinctly female voice asked very quietly.

Sakura did her best impression of a just-been-woken-up-and-not-feeling-very-well moan.

"Are you okay?" Nadesico asked with concern evident in her voice.

"I'm not feeling very well," Sakura uttered weakly.

"Oh, well I was just wondering why you weren't up yet. It's not like you. You just go right back to sleep if you're feeling sick. Your dad and Touya have already gone to work and I'm about to go out to run some errands. Will you be okay?"

"Yea," Sakura practically sighed.

"Good. Syaoran is already awake if you need anything. I'll tell him to listen for you," Nadesico said and made her way to the door.

"That's not necessary." Sakura's voice was suddenly a lot less raspy and weak. "I wouldn't want to bother him."

"Don't be ridiculous," Nadesico disputed. "He won't mind at all, especially since you've both been getting along so well lately."

Sakura made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat.

"You just go right back to sleep and don't worry about a thing," And with that, Nadesico shut the door and was gone.

Great. Just freakin' fantastic. Now she was completely alone in the house with the one person she was trying to avoid. Oh well, maybe he would leave her alone if he thought she was sick. She would just have to lay there for five hours and pretend to be in agony so her cover wouldn't be blown.

Only five minutes after her mom's exit she heard her door creak open again. She hadn't expected him to check on her and inwardly groaned at the position she was in: lying on her stomach and snuggled up to a pillow, the covers tossed aside because of the summer heat. Sakura forced her body to relax and her breathing to be even so it would appear she was asleep. Even Syaoran wouldn't mess with a sleeping sick person.

It was quiet for what seemed like hours. In reality it had probably been a minute. What the hell was he doing? She got her answer a moment later.

Syaoran's hand connected to her right butt cheek in one swift and extremely painful movement.

"OW!" Sakura screamed and shot straight up. "What the hell was that for? Do I go around waking you up by slapping you on the ass?"

Syaoran just looked at her, smug. "Sick, huh?"

Sakura refused to miss a beat. "Sick of your face!"

"Here I was; getting up early so you wouldn't have to be alone in the mornings and then you think you can pull this?" Syaoran demanded.

Sakura primly stuck her nose in the air. "I never asked you to do that. What's wrong with me wanting a little extra shut-eye?"

"That's not what this is about and you know it."

Sakura dropped her gaze and the room got very quiet. She could hear Syaoran breathing slightly harder than usual but she refused to look at him.

"Okay," he said at last. "I see how it's going to be."

And with that statement, he grabbed an unsuspecting Sakura and hauled her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"What is this?!" Sakura shrieked, and struggled with all her might. Syaoran didn't say anything, but carried her out of her room, down the stairs and out the back door. Sakura began to struggle harder when she realized what was about to happen. "Syaoran, don't you dare!"

Her warnings did no good and Syaoran tossed her into the pool without a second thought. Sakura came up, gasping for air and shocked from the cold of the morning water temperature. Pushing her hair out of her eyes, she met Syaoran's gaze and glared at him with as much intensity and pride as she could muster from her new indignity.

Syaoran's only response was to smirk and walk back in the house.

"Son of a…" Sakura finished that sentence with a few choice adjectives and topped it off with a very unkind noun. Still muttering, she dragged herself out of the pool and into the cold breeze. Shivers shot through her body, but she stomped back in after him, completely uncaring that she was tracking water in everywhere.

"Hey, don't you walk away from me!" Sakura yelled as soon as she could see him. Syaoran stopped, but didn't turn around. "What did you think you were doing? What gives you any right?" Still, there was no response. Fueled by anger of all sorts, Sakura stomped the remaining steps up to him, grabbed him by the shoulder, and spun him around so she could look into his face. It was blank.

"How come whenever I want to sleep in I get thrown in the pool? Huh? Is it a sin for me to want to enjoy my summer vacation lavishly?" Sakura shouted the lies out of sheer rage.

"You don't like sleeping in," Syaoran said softly, his expression not changing in the slightest.

"Oh, so now you think you know me?" Sakura's voice was starting to get shrill and she was shivering like a madwoman.

Syaoran's eyebrows shifted slightly into a scowl. "No. But I know you better than you think I do. I can tell when you're lying and you're lying right now."

"Oh really?" Sakura asked, her fury fueling the momentum she needed to keep going. "I think you're full of it."

"I'm not," Syaoran said simply. "You're avoiding me."

"I-" Sakura hadn't been expecting him to say it bluntly like that. He usually just avoided subjects like these. "I'm not-"

"Stop lying!" Syaoran yelled, louder than she had thought possible, and catching her completely off-guard. She started to take a step backwards but somehow she had ended up with her back to a wall. Syaoran took a step closer.

"Why would I want to avoid you?" Sakura asked, hoping that he couldn't hear the slight waver in her voice. She jumped sky high when he smashed his forearms on either side of her face and bent his face closer to her.

"Just stop," he said softly, his breath tickling her lips. She had never felt that she was much smaller than him, but at this proximity with him towering over her it was impossible to miss. Her heart rate increased tenfold and she could only breathe out of her mouth. This caused their breath to mingle, hot and moist. Syaoran let out a deep puff of air and his body relaxed considerably. His forehead came to rest on her chin so that he was facing downwards.

"I know I keep scaring you by doing these kinds of things," Syaoran murmured. "But I can't help it. You're driving me crazy."

Sakura inhaled sharply and Syaoran moaned deep in his throat. "Stop that," he commanded.

"Stop what?" Sakura asked, her voice weak and she berated herself inwardly over it. "Breathing?"

Syaoran chuckled slightly and his hot breath burned a hole on her throat, making her inhale sharply again. Syaoran gently raised his head so they were looking eye-to-eye and Sakura froze at the heat she saw there. He leaned forward slightly and she was so sure he was going to kiss her, and she wasn't sure if she would mind or not, but instead he dragged his cheek across her own so that his lips were right by her ear. "You're wearing a soaking wet white shirt, no bra, and you're obviously cold."

Sakura felt herself blush right down to the tips of her toes. She had been so enraged earlier that she hadn't even noticed.

"Let's do something about that cold, shall we?" Syaoran whispered and before Sakura's brain had any time to process that thought, his lips were on hers and those particular brain waves went right out the window.

His mouth was hot and wet and she had never felt anything so good in her life. Without thinking, she parted her lips to allow him better access as he stroked the inside of her mouth. Just when it was getting difficult to breathe, he broke the kiss and she gasped for air, her chest rising and falling dramatically. She could have told him to stop but she didn't. Syaoran made a trail of fiery kisses down her neck and suckled at the hollow of her throat. It was then that Sakura became aware of Syaoran's hands, picking at the bottom edge of her soaked t-shirt and creeping up her stomach. Sakura clenched her eyes shut tighter as his warm hand grabbed her cool breast, squeezing gently. Her breath hitched in her throat when his thumb rolled over her already hard nipple.

"Syao-" Sakura started to say, but was quieted by Syaoran covering her mouth with his own again. Without moving his left hand from her breast, he hitched her left leg up so it was wrapped around his waist and ground into her slightly. Sakura moaned in his mouth and arched her back on instinct. Taking this as his cue, Syaoran let go of her breast momentarily to cup her butt cheek – the same butt cheek he had smacked to wake her up.

Sakura's thoughts flooded back to her in an instant, with all the reasons that this was wrong and she shoved Syaoran away from her with as much strength as she could muster.

Syaoran's eyes were still dark with heat but his face showed confusion and even a little bit of fear. His clothes were wet from where he'd been pressed against her. "Sakura?" he took a step forward.

"NO!" She shrieked, hysterical. "Stay away from me! This is wrong! I-" Her voice caught in her throat. "I can't do this!" And with that parting statement, she turned and fled up the stairs and into her room. Syaoran's loud, thunderous footsteps were right behind her and she barely managed to lock the door in time.

"Sakura!" he pounded on the door. "Open this door right now! We have to talk about this!"

"No!" Sakura said, her voice determined.

The banging stopped, as if Syaoran had slumped over in defeat. "Why is this so wrong?" he asked her quietly.

"We're cousins!" Sakura blatantly pointed out.

"Not by blood!" Syaoran argued, some of the strength coming into his voice.

"There are other reasons too!" Sakura argued right back.

"Like what?" Syaoran asked. Like Tomoyo, Sakura thought but didn't say a word. "So you're not going to answer me, is that it?"

The tears began to well up in her eyes, so she decided not to say anything else, lest he catch on that she was crying. There was no way she could do that to Tomoyo. And it wasn't just Tomoyo, what would their family think? Sakura wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her face there.

"You're not talking to me anymore?" Syaoran asked blandly. "Fine," he muttered and then was gone.

Only when Sakura was positive that he was far away from her door would she allow herself a nice big sob, and the tears to flow freely.

So much for Operation Avoid Syaoran Like the Plague.

* * *

Sakura remained in her room until the rest of her family was home, and then some. When she came out, she rinsed her face with cold water to try and get rid of some of the puffiness, but to no avail. Oh well. She went down to dinner anyways.

The whole family was already at the table and they all looked up at her entrance, with the exception of Syaoran, who kept right on eating.

"Oh my God!" Nadesico said, getting out of her chair. "Are you okay? You look like you were punched in the face."

"Ha ha," Sakura muttered, her voice extremely scratchy from all the crying she'd done. "I think I'm just having a really bad allergy attack." All she really wanted to do was fall into her mother's comforting arms and blurt out the whole story, but this was one thing that she didn't think she could tell her.

"Oh, okay." Nadesico moved toward their medicine cabinet. She didn't seem completely convinced but she didn't pry. "Why don't you take an Actifed? It'll help."

Sakura thought about it for a second and was about to say no, when she remembered that Actifed would help her sleep, and agreed. After taking the pill from her mother she was going to sit down, but froze in her tracks – the only available seat was between Touya and Syaoran. Hoping that her pause hadn't caught anyone's attention, she continued on her journey. If she refused to sit by Syaoran they would be suspicious and that wouldn't be good. She would just have to swallow her pride and be mature.

"If you ask me," Touya grumbled as she took her seat, "it looks like you've been crying." Nadesico shot her son a scathing look that he ignored.

Sakura forced a snort out of her nose. "That's ridiculous. What would I have to be upset about?"

Touya frowned slightly and took a sip of his water. "I don't know," he said slowly, clearly implying that he didn't believe her and was going to find out. His gaze shifted to Syaoran.

"So what have you been doing today, you little shit?" Touya directed toward their cousin. Both parents at the table scowled and looked like they were going to say something, but Syaoran beat them to it.

"Me?" he asked simply, finally looking up. "Not a whole lot."

Touya's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say more, but was cut off by his father. "That's enough Touya. You're being ridiculous. Syaoran hasn't done anything to deserve being talked to like that."

Touya nodded respectfully but Sakura heard him mutter under his breath. "We'll see about that."

Great, just another thing to add to her list of troubles. If Touya ever found out what went on between her and Syaoran, the earth would just explode. That's it. Game over. She would just have to make sure that didn't happen.

Needless to say, it was a very long dinner.

* * *

Sakura hadn't had a very enjoyable meal. Touya had been sending anger waves through her all night to Syaoran who looked completely untroubled and unconcerned. What Sakura couldn't understand was why Touya was so sure Syaoran had done anything. He must have had a sixth sense or something.

The tiny Actifed had taken its toll so Sakura was on her way back to her bed when a hand shot out from the shadows of the hall and latched onto her upper arm. Sakura gasped softly and Syaoran pulled her so that, once again, their breath was mingling. There was darkness in his eyes, but it was different from the darkness that had been there in the morning. They stood like that for a few seconds in the shadows with only a soft glow coming from her bedroom, before he wet his lips and prepared to speak.

"I'm not going to give up that easily," was all he said and bent to plant a small kiss on the corner of her mouth. And with that, he released her and turned away. Sakura watched him walk away and prayed that the pill was going to be enough to let her sleep after that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Sakura unwrapped a stick of gum and viciously shoved it in her mouth without taking her glare off the back of her mother's head. The aforementioned woman in the front seat went about her business of chatting to her husband, completely oblivious to the mental daggers being sent her way.

The woman was a menace! She had just bound-in one morning after working the night shift and declared that they were all going camping the next day, whether they liked it or not. Seeing chewed food fall out of her brother's gaping mouth in shock had been enough to make her lose her appetite for the next couple days.

Sakura could only guess her mother's intentions for this little family trip, but she suspected that it had something to do with the thick atmosphere that had accumulated since _that day_.

Trying to be discreet, Sakura snuck a sidelong glance at Syaoran. Their eyes met. Sakura quickly went back to looking out the window, but could still feel Syaoran's piercing stare.

Damn it! It had been like that for a week now. While she was trying to forget anything had ever happened, Syaoran was making that impossible by giving her knowing looks when no one else was paying attention. It was really starting to grate on her nerves.

She had no idea what to do! It was obvious that he wasn't going to give up, but there was also no way she would give in. She had good reasons for not wanting to be involved with him in that way and he was just going to have to accept that. Still, it was easier said than done. Sakura started by making sure she was never alone and trying to invite Tomoyo over more often. That at least was keeping him at bay. It wasn't going to work forever. Pretty soon Syaoran was going to break through her defenses and catch her by herself, or Tomoyo was going to catch on to what was happening. Sakura was in desperate need of a game plan. Maybe if Syaoran saw that she was interested in someone else…

That idea instantly perked her up. There was no way Syaoran could ignore her going out with someone else. But who? Sakura deflated again. There was no one like that in her life. She had never really cared about boys as much as Tomoyo, so her prospects were null and void.

Nadesico's melodic laugh broke Sakura out of her little reverie.

That wench.

Nadesico had sprung this trip on everyone so suddenly that it was impossible for her to bring Tomoyo along, who already had other plans. Yukito had managed to have a clear schedule though, Sakura thought savagely. Life wasn't fair. Because her brother's friend was coming she was going to be outnumbered by three boys. She was the odd woman out. Not to mention that it probably meant she was going to be stuck with Syaoran a lot more than she was comfortable with. Sakura predicted that she was somehow always going to get the short end of the stick on this trip.

"Would you cut that out?" Sakura's mom snapped suddenly, getting Sakura's attention. Without realizing it, Sakura had gradually been smacking on her gum louder and louder.

Subtly, Sakura eased the volume up on her iPod and looked out the window at the scenery, smacking away.

"I don't think she can hear you, Nadesico," Sakura's dad offered, glancing at his daughter in the rearview mirror. "Her music's probably too loud."

"She heard me," Nadesico grumbled, but turned back around.

Sakura smirked slightly to herself. Although it had been a pointless victory and her jaw was starting to ache, at least she had won that small battle. Her mom should have thought about how annoying her daughter could be before she stuffed her in the backseat of their car with no leg space and a good amount of luggage… for THREE hours. Oh yea, she was also stuck with the one person on the planet she was working her best to avoid. Not to mention she had to put on her headphones just to listen to some decent music.

If Yukito hadn't come along she would have been in her brother's truck with her feet on the dashboard, windows rolled down, and music blasting. But _no_…

Sakura sighed at her own whininess. She really needed to think positive. Maybe this trip was exactly what the doctor ordered. Some fresh air couldn't hurt, especially since she was beginning to feel paranoid by watching out for Syaoran every time she turned a corner.

Sakura perked up slightly when she noticed her father was pulling into a rest stop. "What's going on?" she asked, pulling off her headphones.

"You're mother and I have to pee," Fujitaka explained as he and Nadesico jumped out of the car and made a mad dash for the bathroom. Sakura made a face. What a couple of losers. Did they have to phrase it quite like that? No wonder she always said crap like that – her parents had rubbed off on her. Puh, now that was a scary thought.

"We wouldn't want a repeat performance of the first time we ever had to stop here, now would we Sakura?" Touya's annoying voice spoke up from her open window. She hadn't even noticed him pull up, much less get out of his truck. She really was out of it today.

Nevertheless, Sakura eyed her brother warily. "What are you insinuating?"

Touya's eye's widened in mock surprise. "You mean you don't remember?"

"Remember what?" Now she was just confused. Touya seemed to find that hysterical.

"What are you guys talking about?" Yukito asked, coming out of the passenger side of the truck and standing beside his dark-haired friend.

"Yes," Syaoran piped up, much to Sakura's chagrin. "What is this seemingly delightful story you're telling?"

Touya let his joyful expression drop long enough to sneer at Syaoran, but continued anyways. "Oh, I was just reminiscing with my dear sister about the first time we ever stopped at this particular spot. Would you like to hear about it?" he directed the question at Yukito.

"Sure," Syaoran answered, but was ignored.

Yukito looked at Touya, untrusting, and then glanced at Sakura who shrugged her shoulders and said, "I have no idea what he's going on about."

Touya flashed his teeth at Sakura before starting his story. "I'd say I was about ten when this story took place, which would make Sakura seven. You see, there I was, minding my own business, when Sakura got this ghostly pale look on her face and the car started to smell."

The present day Sakura paled as well as she took a better look at her surroundings and realization began to dawn on her.

"Touya, shut up!" But he didn't.

"And do you know what that smell was?" Touya asked Yukito, pretending to shove a microphone under his nose to hear his response.

"Um, no," Yukito said cautiously. "And I don't think Sakura wants me to know."

Touya continued as if he hadn't heard anything. "That, my friend, was the smell of-"

Sakura was halfway out of the door, intent on shutting her brother up, but her foot was stuck under someone's bag and she lost her balance slightly. She could hear Syaoran already cracking up, but wasn't sure if it was because of the story or her lack of coordination. Probably both. Bastard.

"Poop." Touya practically crowed, causing Sakura to freeze in her tracks. "Because, you see, my cute perfect little sister had just sharted on herself."

Sakura felt the color return to her face out of anger. Beside her, Syaoran was clutching his side in hysterics. With one last tug, she yanked her foot from its prison of luggage and stomped towards her brother who looked completely undaunted.

"What do you plan to do?" Touya teased, standing up straight so that he towered over her shorter frame. Once again Sakura cursed her mother for giving all the tall genes to Touya.

"Kick you in the balls," Sakura said and went for it, her leg coming up in a quick jerking motion. Unfortunately for her, it was too slow and Touya caught it. Instead of letting her leg go, he pulled it slightly higher and watched as Sakura desperately searched for some way to keep her balance. She would have failed miserably if Yukito hadn't offered his arm for her to latch onto.

"Aw, you're no fun," Touya said to his friend before letting go of Sakura's leg.

"Just so you know," she said, straightening her clothes in a very dignified manner. "I will get you back some time during this trip."

"I don't doubt that you'll try." Touya grinned like a shark and sauntered back to his truck just as their parents came back out.

"Well, let's go," Fujitaka said and motioned for Sakura to get back in the car. "We're not far now."

Touching the door handle, Sakura changed her mind and spun around walked towards Touya's truck. Her mother gave her an exasperated look, but didn't say anything. She came up on the passenger's side and knocked. When Yukito rolled the window down, she leaned forward so she could look her brother in the eye and said, "Just so you know, it was no coincidence that when I had my little accident, I was sitting on your pillow." She walked back to the car, grinning with triumph at the disgusted look on his face.

"Remind me to never do something to make you want to relieve yourself on my pillow," Syaoran said to her when she got in the car.

"You're too late," Sakura informed his smug face. "If I were you, I wouldn't let your pillows out of your sight."

And with those parting sentiments, Sakura put her headphones back on and resumed blocking out the rest of the world.

* * *

"What the hell is this?" Sakura asked, staring at the box Touya had just shoved in her arms.

"Your tent," Touya answered without looking at her. Sakura's jaw hit the floor.

"WHAT?! You've got to be kidding! This is the tent we used to put the ice chest in! It's what? Four square feet?"

"Don't over exaggerate," Nadesico said from somewhere to her left.

"I'm not!" Sakura said, trying desperately not to shriek. "You'll be lucky if I can fit in that while in the fetal position!"

"You're not that fat." Touya said, snickering. Nadesico gave him a withering look, but Sakura couldn't help notice that she didn't actually scold him. Stupid mother who played favorites.

"I'm not fat at all," she sniffed to herself before snapping back into complaining mode.

"So let me get this straight: Mom and dad get the family dome, Touya, Yukito, and Syaoran get the 2-3 person dome, and I get the smurfs' coliseum?"

There was some laughter from her dad and Yukito that made her smile slightly, but Syaoran's loud, snarky laughter only darkened her mood some more.

"Well," her mother explained, "you're the only person who's going to sleep by herself, and these are the only tents we have."

"Why couldn't you have warned me? I would have asked Tomoyo's mom if I could borrow one of their tents. I'm sure she wouldn't have minded."

Nadesico didn't reply and continued unloading, which Sakura took to mean that she either hadn't thought of that, or she wanted to make her daughter suffer. She was almost willing to bet on the latter.

"Everybody set up your tents and we'll unpack the rest afterwards," Fujitaka instructed, a very large box with a picture of an enormous tent by his side. Sakura felt jealousy well up inside her.

"So I guess this means I have to set up my tent on my own?" Sakura asked, resigned to her fate.

Syaoran clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, it won't be too hard for you; all you have to do is pull a string." And he walked away, laughing like a jackass.

"Ha ha," Sakura mumbled and looked around for a spot to set up her temporary home. To her dismay (but not surprise) she found that the rest of the campers had taken both shady spots. She rolled her eyes heavenward and dropped her box by a dying tree with no leaves. "All I can say is that there better not be any ants."

It didn't take her long to set up the tiny tent. After all, she had always been the one to set it up in the past. She had a little difficultly, but it wasn't too terrible. Curious, she opened the flap and peered inside. It looked even smaller than she remembered. It would be a miracle if she managed to fit all her stuff in there AND spread the sleeping bag out. Feeling a slight dread for nighttime, she decided to see how her comrades/enemies were faring.

It wasn't a pretty sight. Sakura sat down on the ice chest and watched in amusement as Touya stood in the middle of the tent, desperately trying to hold it up while Yukito and Syaoran went around attaching everything.

"I guess we've finally found a use for you." Sakura laughed at the look Touya shot towards her. His face was flushed pink from the heat and effort of holding the tent up and his hair kept falling in his eyes. Sakura spent a few more minutes laughing at his expense before she heard her name being called.

"What?" she asked, coming upon her parents' site where they were spreading out the canvas and holding the stick thingies.

"We need your help. This is a three person job."

Sakura raised an imperious eyebrow. "It's a tent for more than three people. Maybe if you got a tent for one person, like mine, you'd be able to set it up."

"Sakura," her mother's voice was a warning. "I'm not going to ask you again."

"Good," Sakura replied, undaunted. "Because I'd hate to say no to you again."

Fujitaka watched on in bemusement. Nadesico gave a strained laugh. "Okay, but I'll remember that for later when you want some help."

"Like I'd need your help," Sakura said snootily, but not really meaning it. She knew that her mother was serious and this whole thing was going to bite her in the ass sooner or later. Still, she didn't want to back down and admit defeat.

"Suit yourself," Nadesico said and got back to work.

Oh, what fun this trip was already shaping up to be.

* * *

Sakura squirted a huge glob of sunscreen onto her hand and worked it into her shoulders and arms, determined not to get sunburned this year as they floated down the river on inner tubes. It was then that she realized she needed help putting it on her back.

"Mom!" Sakura called, and looked around the small camp. From where she was perched on the picnic table she could see everything.

"What?" Her mother's reply came from her large tent. Somehow the adults had managed to set up the tent without Sakura's help. 'Somehow' meaning that they had conned Touya and Yukito into giving them a hand.

"Could you put sunscreen on my back?" Sakura asked.

Nadesico popped her head out of her tent and slowly let an evil grin split across her face. "Now why would I do that?"

"Huh?" Sakura was feeling a bit slow all of a sudden.

"Why would I want to _help_ you with that?"

Catching on that this was Nadesico's form of revenge for the tent incident, Sakura rolled her eyes. Sometimes her mother could be really childish.

"Because you don't want me to get skin cancer," Sakura stated very matter of fact.

"Of course I don't but there are other people around. Get someone else to help you." Nadesico came out of her tent clad in a one piece bathing suit and some flip flops. Sakura had to admit that she looked pretty good, especially for a woman her age. However, all good thoughts flew from Sakura's mind when her mother took one look at her and promptly stuck her nose in the air. "Because I won't."

"Okay." Sakura relented, while rubbing the bridge of her nose. Arguing with her mother like they were sisters was giving her the start of an awesome headache. "Where's Dad?"

"Bathroom."

"Touya?"

"Bathroom."

Sakura blanched and tried again. "Yukito?"

"Bathroom."

"What the hell?!" Sakura had always thought that it was just girls that went to the bathroom in packs. She always figured that her brother was kind of – err – off, but her father? "What are they doing? Sharing a box of tampons?"

Nadesico gave her daughter the stink eye that also made it clear that she thought a few screws were loose. "Your brother and Yukito didn't know where the bathrooms were and your father went to show them."

Nadesico took a hair toggle off her wrist and deftly tied her long hair up in a messy bun. With a mother like that, sometimes it was hard to have high self-esteem. Sakura often forgot just how stunning her mother could be because Nadesico's usual wardrobe consisted of scrubs and pajamas.

"Speaking of which…" Nadesico shot her daughter another look. "I'm going to the restroom now too. Are you coming?"

"No," Sakura answered, looking at the sky. She had some pride too and she refused to tag along.

"Suit yourself." Nadesico shrugged. "But you might want to make sure you go before we get on the river. There's no bathroom there for hours!"

"Then I'll just pee in the river like everybody else," Sakura muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Sakura shot her mother a 100 watt smile.

"Whatever." Nadesico turned on her heel and marched toward the bathrooms without looking back.

When she was out of earshot, Sakura let the fake smile drop and groaned.

"I think you're forgetting about someone," a deep voice rumbled from right behind her. The unexpected voice was so close to her ear that Sakura jumped up and stumbled a little in her haste to get off the picnic table.

When she was face to face with the other person she suddenly felt very tiny. Of course, there was no way that she would give him the satisfaction of knowing that. So she gathered her wits and tried to think of something witty to say.

"You're just so insignificant that it's easy to forget you're there." Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

Syaoran just gave her that knowing smirk that was beginning to look all too familiar. "Now why don't I believe you?" He moved around the table and took a couple of steps towards her.

Sakura suddenly felt like the proverbial deer caught in headlights. Her brain was screaming at her to run away, but her feet just weren't cooperating.

How had she let herself get into this situation? All of her hard work at avoiding being alone with him had just flown out the window. In the corner of Sakura's mind, she felt some resentment for her mother who had distracted her.

A light shadow was cast over Sakura and she slowly looked up with apprehension. Syaoran's broad shoulders were slightly blocking Sakura from the sun. How had he managed to get so close? When had she let her defenses down? Probably with all this inner dialogue, she berated herself and was forced to face the situation at hand. Now, what was the last thing he said?

"Probably because your skull is too thick for things people say to get through." Sakura glared up at him as strong as possible.

"Like what?" he asked, not moving towards her but not moving away either. Now that Sakura was pretty sure she could control her feet again it didn't matter. There was no way that she would take a step backwards. That would be like letting him win.

"Like 'no'," Sakura countered. He just chuckled and let his chest shake slightly. This made Sakura aware for the first time that he was in his bathing suit like she was. This of course meant that his chest was bare. So distracted by all the naked skin, Sakura only noticed that his hand was moving towards her at the last minute.

It was a good thing that all he did was snatch the sunscreen bottle out of her hands. Sakura felt the tension seep out of her bones when he took a half step back as well.

"Turn around." The tension came flooding back.

"Wh – what?" Sakura croaked.

"I said," Syaoran spoke slower as to insinuate that that was all it took for her tiny brain to comprehend, "turn around."

When she only continued to stare up at him blankly he rolled his eyes heavenward. "Fine." Before she knew it, his hands were on her shoulders and turning her around manually. When he let go, her back was to him. "I can't put sunscreen on your back with you facing me," he stated.

"Oh." Sakura wasn't sure how comfortable she was with all this, but she really did need to put sunscreen on. "You promise not to do anything funny?"

"Nope." Syaoran grinned at her like a shark when she turned around to look at him. She opened her mouth to say something but he cut her off. "I'm just kidding. I won't do anything. This is completely innocent – I'm just helping you with the sunscreen."

Sakura's mouth opened and closed several more times before she managed to say, "Good." and turned back around.

Sakura listened as Syaoran popped open the cap to the sunscreen and squirted some on his hands. She steeled herself but still wasn't quite ready for when his hands made contact with her upper back. He began rubbing the lotion in with sturdy hands.

"You know," he began, his hands sliding up her shoulders and to the nape of her neck. "I was thinking."

"About what?"

"About us." Sakura's breath hitched in her throat but Syaoran continued to rub the lotion down her back. When he made it to the bikini strings of her top he snuck his hands under it to make sure the lotion was everywhere. Sakura said nothing so Syaoran continued. "We've been so tense around each other lately that I think the others are starting to notice."

"You mean Touya," Sakura finally said at length. Syaoran laughed.

"Yeah, him… but the others as well. And," Syaoran trailed off and Sakura listened as he put more sunscreen on his hands. "I've also missed talking to you."

Sakura spun around so that she could see his face. All she saw was complete honesty. They stared at each other for several seconds before Sakura finally let herself truly relax and smiled at him. "I guess I've kind of missed talking to you too."

Syaoran quirked an eyebrow at her. "You guess?"

"Don't push it." Sakura smirked and turned so he could finish covering her lower back with sunscreen. He continued the job.

"So let's call a temporary truce," Syaoran said, running his hands up and down her sides to make sure the lotion was absorbed.

"Temporary?" Sakura asked.

"Of course temporary." Syaoran grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to signal that he was finished. His eyes bore holes into hers. "For the sake of this trip and our sanity, I promise to be on my best behavior. Of course, that only lasts until we get home."

Sakura shook her head at him, but could feel the butterflies churning in her stomach. "I suppose that's the best offer I'm going to get, so I'll take it." That way, she could actually enjoy the trip without having to worry about Syaoran all the time.

"Good." Syaoran flashed his teeth in a smile. "I told you I wouldn't give up that easily, but I will give you a break for now."

"How thoughtful of you," Sakura said sarcastically. She felt like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders and this little camping trip was actually starting to feel like a vacation. Of course, there was the little niggling feeling in the back of her brain that was reminding her that this newfound comfort was only temporary, but she squashed it.

"So…" Syaoran slapped the sunscreen bottle in her hands and turned his back to her. "My turn."

"Huh?" Even to her own ears, Sakura sounded completely stupid.

"I don't want a sunburn on my back either," Syaoran stated slowly for her. Sakura had the sudden urge to tear his hair out, but she refrained. Instead, she put a huge glob of sunscreen in her hand and began to work it into his back. She had put on way too much and his whole back was covered in white.

"You do realize that you're going to have to work all of that in, right?" Syaoran asked haughtily.

"Yep!" Sakura smiled to herself as she rubbed sunscreen all over his broad back. She began making little designs out of the excess sunscreen and then wiping it away.

"It's never going to rub in," Syaoran said impatiently.

"Aw, keep your panties on," Sakura retorted, although he did have a point. She was going to have to spread the lotion onto more skin. Sakura started pushing the lotion up and down his sides, and finally to his front midsection. She had to wrap her arms around him to get his front and she ran her fingers through the contours of his stomach. Syaoran tensed. It was then that Sakura realized what she was doing.

Idiot! She berated herself.

"Ahem."

Sakura froze at the familiar voice and could have sworn her neck creaked as she turned to look into the face of her older brother.

"What are you doing?" Touya asked, his hands on his hips.

"Molesting me," Syaoran answered for her so she dug her nails into his belly. Realizing that she was still in a compromising situation, Sakura let her hands drop from around Syaoran and sheepishly took a step back.

"I was just helping him with the sunscreen." Sakura looked around frantically. "Where's everybody else?"

"They're renting the inner tubes. They sent me back here to get you guys," Touya answered her while glaring and promptly shoved her out of the way with his hip. "Here, let me help you." And with that, he put his man hands on Syaoran's back and continued the job that Sakura had been doing.

Because of the look on Syaoran's face, Sakura thought she would never be able to stop laughing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It seemed like hours before the small group had selected their inner tubes and made their way down to the river.

Despite herself, Sakura realized that she was actually starting to get excited at the thought of this trip. For a while she had forgotten how much she actually enjoyed camping - putting aside the occasional glitches. Floating down the river had especially been a favorite of hers. Something about it was so relaxing. Perhaps because of the quality time spent with family and not having a care in the world. It certainly helped that she had called a temporary truce with her "Roman Handed" cousin. That was a great weight lifted off her shoulders. This new found relief was only slightly dampened by the suspicious eye that Touya had kept on them because of the scene he had wandered in on earlier that day. Really, she'd just been helping Syaoran with his sunscreen! It was completely innocent!

"So what do we do exactly when we get to the pavilion area?" Syaoran asked Sakura's father from somewhere behind her.

"You get out of the river and walk back to camp."

That particular sentence was enough to temporarily wipe the happy smile right off Sakura's face. Dangit! She'd forgotten about that nasty little catch. Oh well, couldn't be helped.

"Isn't that pretty far away?" There was a bit of apprehension in Syaoran's voice.

"Just a couple of miles!" Nadesico piped up. "Since the river curves around our camp site it's not so bad."

"Unless your shoes are wet and you're carrying a huge, black inner tube on a hot day," Touya grouched.

Sakura heard Yukito laugh and say in a teasing voice, "A big guy like you is whining about a little labor?"

"Just wait," Touya growled back and said something else but Sakura was distracted by then. A huge smile broke out on her face as she took in the sparkling water of the river. It was just too pretty!

Without another thought to the rest of the group trailing behind her, Sakura lifted the inner tube over her head and ran toward the river. Really, she was a child at heart. Who could blame her? She reached the edge of the water and came to a screeching halt. The water wasn't very deep and she could see through its relatively clear sheen to the rocks below. While she was ogling the fishies, the rest of the group walked up behind her.

"Do you have any idea how tempting it is to push you in?" Nadesico asked, a goofy smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"I couldn't agree more," Syaoran said and Sakura turned around to glare at them both.

"Do it and it will be the last thing either of you do." Sakura sniffed and whipped back around to river. Determined not to let anything dampen her spirits, she broke out into another face-splitting grin. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Sakura scrunched her toes up to make sure her flip flops stayed in place and carefully put one foot in the water… and promptly pulled it out.

"Cold!"

"You're such a wuss." Nadesico walked past her and into the water with her tube around her midsection, apparently unfazed by the low temperature of the river. "It's not that bad."

"She's right," Syaoran said, joining her mother in the water. The rest of the group soon followed, moving slow because of the uneven rocks until Sakura was the only one left standing on the bank.

Belatedly, Sakura wondered when exactly Syaoran had teamed up with her mother in tormenting her. That was just what she needed – her two worst nemeses teaming up. She conveniently neglected to acknowledge that the rest of the party had abandoned her as well.

Sighing, Sakura put her foot back in the water and grimaced slightly. The water was cold, but not something that was too hard to get used to. Her mother was right.

Sakura hooked her arm around her inner tube and carefully made her way to the group. She was almost there when her left foot managed to find a particularly slick rock and flew out from under her. Sakura landed in the water with a large splash. Somehow, her butt had managed to land on a very lumpy rock and she winced in pain, letting go of her inner tube at the same time. It started to get taken by the current, but Yukito valiantly chased after it. Everyone else was too busy laughing to bother. Even then, Sakura could see the hint of a suppressed grin on his face. Traitor.

"I'm off to a good start," Sakura muttered under her breath to herself before trying to stand up. Her foot started to slip again but she quickly righted it. She didn't want a repeat performance.

Glaring, she waded up to her family while rubbing her sore bottom. "That hurt."

"At least you had something soft to land on." Touya snorted into his hand.

"I'm just going to pretend like you didn't say that," Sakura grouched while accepting her tube back from Yukito. She thanked him and then sighed. "Let's get this started." Somehow she seriously doubted that she would be able to maintain her sunny disposition for the entirety of this journey.

* * *

So much for a relaxing float down the river. According to a few locals they passed, it had been raining a lot the last month or so. This meant that the river was more full and moving a lot more rapidly. Because of this, the group had quickly been separated.

It first started when Yukito got taken by the current. Touya chased after him, sending Sakura and Syaoran a look that Sakura took to mean he didn't trust them but it was okay since they were still with her parents. Touya and Yukito didn't (or weren't able to) wait up for the rest of the group, so six became four.

Sakura seriously debated pushing her mother onto some sharp rocks. "Come ON, Sakura! Stop getting your butt stuck on rocks!" Nadesico squealed like a small child, getting pushed along by the water easily. When she reached her husband, she stood up to wait on the other two.

"Oh, yes, because I'm doing it on purpose!" Sakura shouted back and tried to push off a large rock with her foot to unstick herself. All she managed to do was flip around in time to have Syaoran's inner tube come crashing into hers. The tube smacked into her leg pretty hard, but on the bright side, she wasn't stuck anymore.

"Sorry," Syaoran said but the grin on his face made her seriously doubt his sincerity.

"Well, at least I'm free no-" She didn't even finish that sentence before her tube got stuck on another rock. Nadesico's laughter was loud and obnoxious, but Syaoran reached up and latched an arm around Sakura's tube and dragged her with him.

Together, the two bounced off the rocks, getting jarred frequently. Not entirely enjoying the new bumpy ride, Sakura said, "You can let go now."

"You'll get stuck again!" Syaoran refused over the crash of water on rocks. Sakura was annoyed to realize he had a point. There was hardly a rock in the river that she hadn't managed to get snagged on up until that point. Before Touya disappeared, he suggested that it was perhaps because the weight of her butt was making her sink more that the rest of them.

They almost made it to the fork in the river where her parents were waiting for them when Sakura realized that they were veering toward the right and not the left. It was all part of the same river and would merge once again, but the right side was the more violent ride until the merge.

"Syaoran, what are you doing? Go to the left! THE LEFT!"

"I can't!" Syaoran yelled back, sounded a little out of breath. "The current is pulling me this way!"

"Then let go of my tube!" Sakura shrieked, and tried tugging on his fingers. It was a no go.

"It'll be fun!" Syaoran shouted back towards her, but he didn't sound completely sure.

"Wait for me!" Nadesico cried, trying to get over to the right side and sit in her inner tube. She and Fujitaka had just gotten situated when Nadesico's inner tube got stuck on a rock. Sakura barely had enough time to catch her mother's eye and stick her tongue out before the river went around a bend and they were out of sight.

And then it was just the two of them.

For the longest time Sakura didn't even get an opportunity to give this particular fact a thought because the pair of them was being bounced from rock to rock in true pinball fashion. Through all of the jarring, Syaoran didn't let go of her tube. Noticing the strain that he was under (even in her terror induced mind) Sakura reached out and grabbed his wrist to help him out. Their eyes met and the corner of Syaoran's mouth twitched up slightly.

And then both of them were sent asses over elbows with a splash.

Distantly, Sakura thought she heard something rip, but she was more concerned about getting her bearings. The water wasn't very deep so she didn't have to worry about drowning, but the current was fast. Syaoran and Sakura watched belatedly as their inner tubes floated down the river without them.

"Damn," Syaoran said, and stood up. Sakura realized that she was still holding onto his wrist and made to let go. Instead, Syaoran slid his arm until his left hand was tightly clamped in her right. "Be careful," he said, and helped her up. Still, he didn't let go. Sakura tried to catch his eye, but it wasn't happening.

"I guess we better chase those," Syaoran said at length and tugged her forward.

* * *

It was thirty minutes later and no luck.

"How far ahead do you think they are?" Sakura whined. "I don't want to pay for a stupid inner tube with my money."

"We'll find them," Syaoran said, even managing to sound a tad optimistic.

"Yes, but will they still float?" Sakura grouched and then slipped. For. The. MILLIONTH. TIME.

"AARGH!"

At least Syaoran managed to catch her that time. That didn't stop her flip flop from coming off her foot and trying to escape though. "No!" Sakura cried and took after it at a dead run. She was actually pretty impressed with herself for being able to catch it and was about to inform Syaoran as much when she noticed that he was doubled over, laughing.

"And just what is so funny?" Sakura snapped, irritated.

"You're – bathing – suit!" Syaoran wheezed. Sakura glanced down at herself. Everything seemed fine.

"What's wrong with it?"

"The butt!" Syaoran gasped and grabbed at a stitch in his side. Good to know that her misfortune was enough to brighten his whole day.

Dreading what she was going to see, Sakura craned her neck to get a look at her backside… and got a lot more of her backside than she bargained for. "Eek!" She shrieked in a very girly fashion and flopped down in the water so no one could see. "There's a hole in my swimsuit!" That small movement seemed to make the rip even bigger.

"No joke!" Syaoran chuckled while approaching. Sakura glared up at him balefully.

"When did that happen?" Sakura asked herself out loud and the vague memory of material being ripped came to mind. "Oh my GOD!" She wanted to drown herself. "You mean I've been walking around like this for thirty minutes?"

"Come to think of it," Syaoran said, scratching his chin. "I thought we were getting more stares than usual." And he burst out into fresh peals of laughter.

Trying to ignore this new slight on her already bruised ego, Sakura pointed downstream with as much vehemence as she could muster. "March!"

"Huh?" Syaoran asked, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

"I'm not going to let you walk behind me with this view the whole way! You walk first!"

"Okay," Syaoran agreed, but shook his head at her in pity. "But what are you going to do when we come across more people?" Even if she managed to cover it with her hands, it was obvious.

"I'll worry about that when I have to." Sakura was already dreading the moment because she was fresh out of ideas.

* * *

It was sooner rather than later.

"What am I going to do, Syaoran?" Sakura whined, feeling panic overtake her. They had made it to a part in the river that was calm and deep so people liked to hang out there. Sakura wouldn't have been surprised if there were more than 200 people.

It seemed like Syaoran was having as hard a time coming up with ideas as she was. "The water is kinda deep. Maybe you can just make sure your butt never leaves the water?"

"Thank you Doctor Bob," Sakura grouched, but sunk down in the water all the same. She felt like an idiot doing a squat walk while Syaoran stood tall. The whole experience wasn't helped by the stares she was getting and the smirk on Syaoran's face.

"Hey! Did you two lose your inner tubes?" A voice called out to them and Sakura's ears perked up hopefully.

"We sure did!" Sakura said, and did a hobbled turn to face the pale boy with dark hair who was walking towards him, dragging a couple inner tubes behind him. Recognition sparked on his features when he looked at her companion.

"Hey, Syaoran! Small world, isn't it?"

Sakura turned her face up to see the sour look on her cousin's face. "Unbearably so."

"Aww, don't be like that," The boy said and gave Sakura a conspiratorial grin and wink. "He's just upset that I beat him at basketball one on one."

"It was only one time!" Syaoran barked.

"So you two know each other?" Sakura asked, deeply amused at Syaoran's defensiveness.

"Oh yes," The boy answered, smiling like a Cheshire cat. "I'm Eriol Hiirigizawa. Syaoran and I have been in school together since Junior High. I guess you could say we're old friends."

"Or not," Syaoran scoffed.

The boy, Eriol, lifted his hand to cover his mouth from Syaoran's view and whispered. "He's being a sore loser. It's his own fault thought. He thought the only sport I'm good at is tennis and he was wrong."

"It was just luck!" Syaoran retorted, but was ignored.

"I play tennis too," Sakura offered, grinning up at the boy that was able to get under Syaoran's skin so easily.

"Really?" Eriol tilted his head to the side and grinned. "Come to think of it, you do look a bit familiar. I must have seen you when our schools played against each other."

"Probably. I'm Sakura Kinomoto." Sakura extended her hand up towards Eriol and he shook it firmly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sakura." His smile had a mischievous look behind it that made her heart momentarily skip a beat - fact which greatly unsettled her.

"Ahem." Syaoran cleared his throat. "I'm still here."

"Of course you are!" Eriol said and let Sakura's hand slide out of his own. "So how do you two know each other?"

"We're cousins," Sakura answered, because it didn't seem like Syaoran was going to. "We're camping with my family, but we seem to have lost them on this _relaxing_ journey down the river."

Eriol laughed and nodded. "I know what you mean. I'm here with my family too but my parents have managed to disappear and my sister, Nakuru, is over there." He jerked his head in the direction of a tall girl with long brown hair in a cute bikini and chatting up a couple of guys.

"Looks like she's having fun." Sakura grinned.

"Seems that way." Eriol smiled back.

Syaoran scowled.

"Do you mind if I ask you something, Sakura?" Eriol finally said, at length.

"What?"

"Why are you just sitting in the water like that?"

Sakura flushed, remembering her predicament. "That's… ah, well… you see…" Sakura looked up at Syaoran, but he didn't offer up any explanation. "I ripped my bathing suit," Sakura finally blurted out.

Eriol chuckled, but Sakura gave him points for not outright laughing in her face. "I see. Well, that's no good, is it?"

"Nope. And there's still a long ways to go," Sakura said, and got depressed as she said it.

"Well, maybe I can do something to help you," Eriol said helpfully, and pushed the inner tubes into Syaoran's care. "Here. I'll be right back." Sakura watched as he waded his way back to shore.

"He seems nice," Sakura said, after Syaoran's silence began to wear on her. Syaoran made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. Eriol returned a second later, carrying a t-shirt.

"Here." He handed it to Sakura. "You can tie it around your waist or something."

"Thanks!" Sakura said, and took the shirt gratefully. "But how will I get it back to you?"

Eriol thought about it for a second before answering. "Are you going to the dance at the pavilion tomorrow night?" Sakura nodded. "You can just give it to me then."

"Well, thanks a bunch!" Sakura said again, while fastening the shirt around her waist in a kind of skirt (under the water of course). "We'll see you tomorrow then!"

"Bye!" Eriol replied. "It was good seeing you again Syaoran!" Syaoran waved and nodded in acknowledgment before turning his attention back to Sakura. He handed her one of the inner tubes.

"Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

Sakura groaned. "Do we have to?"

* * *

"Where did the river go?" Sakura cried as she looked at the dry rocks that went on forever. Around them, people were walking and carrying their tubes.

Syaoran rolled his eyes heavenward. "This is just a dry patch. I'm sure the river will start up again a little ways forward."

"Yea, duh, but this is a long dry 'patch'," Sakura said, just to be petulant. "It's going to take us forever to walk over all of this!"

"I know how to make it go faster."

Sakura turned her face towards her cousin, hopefully. "Really?"

"Yup." And with that, Syaoran snatched the t-shirt that Eriol lent Sakura and took off at a dead run.

Sakura stood there in shock for about a minute. Realizing that her butt was a shot to the world now, she hiked up her inner tube so it was covering up her wardrobe malfunction and took off after her cousin, letting out a war cry as she did.

Needless to say, the two of them got a lot of stares.

* * *

"I'm tired!" Sakura whined, hanging halfway on and halfway off her tube. Her feet were kicking in the depths of the water uselessly.

"Well, at least it's not a dry patch," Syaoran said wryly, coming up beside her. He gave his tube a push and then swam after it.

"No kidding." Not only was the water too deep for them to touch the bottom, there wasn't much of a current either. To move forward, the pair had been forced to get off their tubes and push. Sakura made to catch up with him and finally said, "Stop!"

Syaoran doubled around and came back up to her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm seriously tired, I think I'm getting sunburned despite all the sunscreen I put on, I have to pee, and I am taking a BREAK." She flopped her head on her tube pathetically.

Syaoran snorted. "Wimp."

"Eat me."

Syaoran gave a mock surprised look. "Sakura, we're in a public place. I can't do that to you! Besides, I thought we were on a truce!"

Sakura glared at him. "You know that's not what I meant. Stop sexually harassing me."

"You were the one who said it. I think that means you were the one who was sexually harassing ME," Syaoran jeered.

Sakura was too tired to care. "Whatever. Have me arrested. They'll at least take me to civilization."

"Oh you poor thing," Syaoran patted her back with a laugh. "Just get on your tube and I'll push you for a while."

"Really?" Sakura's head perked up, but she was almost afraid to get her hopes up on the chance that he was teasing her.

"Yes, really."

Sakura giggled happily and dragged her exhausted carcass back on her inner tube, with a little help from Syaoran ("Watch your hands, buddy!").

It wasn't long before they had settled into a contented routine. Sakura kept one hand on Syaoran's empty inner tube and Syaoran swam around behind her, giving her a push every now and then.

"I feel a little bad making you do this," Sakura revealed, but made no move to get off her throne.

"Just enjoy it while it lasts," Syaoran replied and gave her another shove.

"True. Your bouts of kindness are just so few and far in between."

"Uh huh."

They settled back into silence, so Sakura just relaxed. Once her twice, Sakura felt Syaoran poke her in the butt. Though she was confused, she didn't say anything. When it happened a third time, she finally mentioned it.

"Will you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Poking me in the ass."

Silence.

"Sakura, I'm not anywhere near your ass."

Sakura looked back at Syaoran, confused. Just as he put his hands up in the 'I surrender' pose, she felt it again… HARD.

"AIEK!" It was the ugliest noise she thought she had ever made, but she was unconcerned with that at the moment. Without an ounce of grace, she flipped off the tube and back into the water so that she could better protect her bum. "There's something in the water and it think it bit me!"

Syaoran started chuckling. "I think there may be some fish in here."

"I think it bit my butt!" Sakura shrieked again, in case he missed that the first time.

"I guess it just couldn't resist such a big meal," Syaoran said and earned a splash in the face. Sakura's anger at that remark didn't last long, as the color drained from her face.

"Ow! I think it's biting my ankle now!" She shrieked and gave her inner tube a mighty push. Without another word, she took off after it, moving way faster than she ever had.

"So much for being tired, huh?" Syaoran called after her. She didn't even dignify that with a response.

* * *

"I can't believe we made it out alive," Sakura said, heaving her body out of the water and onto the shore of the pavilion.

"Neither can I, Fish Bait." Syaoran snickered, using her new nickname.

"Shut up."

"Now what?" Syaoran asked.

"We walk."

"Swell."

* * *

"I thought your mother said the camp wasn't that far."

Sakura heaved a big sigh and switched her scalding inner tube to her other arm. The evening sun glared down on them, unforgiving. "She lied."

"Seems that way."

They fell into silence, only broken by one of them sighing or grunting.

"Okay, I need a break," Sakura finally said and leaned against a wooden post that was holding up a fence running the length of the road. "I think my flip flops are giving me blisters."

"Mine too," Syaoran said and leaned next to her. "How long do you think we've been walking?"

"I don't have a clue."

Syaoran slouched down a little further, his arm brushing against Sakura's. She felt a little thrill of excitement travel up to her shoulder before mentally squashing it. Stupid hormones.

It was then that the two of them noticed a truck coming up the road from the direction they came from. Both watched in envy of the wheels as it passed by. And then they saw the back.

"Bye!" Nadesico called out to them and waved from where she and Fujitaka were perched in the back of the truck. At the last minute, she stuck her tongue out at Sakura. The truck disappeared from view, leaving the stunned teens with their mouths agape.

"They hitchhiked so they wouldn't have to walk this, didn't they?" Syaoran asked, breaking the silence.

"It seems that way," Sakura replied, not even sure how she managed to get the words out. "And they LEFT US."

Oh, it was GAME ON.

* * *

After what felt like a million years (not to mention the part where they got lost) Sakura and Syaoran finally made it back to the campsite.

Sakura half skipped/limped up to their spot, Syaoran hot on her heels. No one else was around to be seen, not that that was any big surprise. They were probably hiding because they knew when she got a hold of them they were DEAD.

"I never thought I would be so glad to see my midget tent!"

Sakura launched herself at her small, temporary home with every intent of grabbing her shower supplies and a change of clothes but she stopped cold when she managed to unzip the front door.

Ants. There were ants EVERYWHERE. They were crawling all over her sleeping back and pillow, in her bag, and over her blankets. Sakura stared in shock until she felt Syaoran come up behind her. So slowly she could have sworn her neck creak, she turned her head to look at him and said one word:

"Figures."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Luckily for Sakura, her kind father took pity on her and said he would take care of the ants in her tent. After all, she _was_ extremely pitiful. Her mother, however, almost bust a gut when she saw all of Sakura's belongings covered in ants. Sakura wasted no time in informing Nadesico that she was developing some very deep crow's feet.

Despite the bickering that ensued, Nadesico agreed to help Fujitaka with the ants while Sakura took a shower. She managed to shake the ants off a clean set of clothes to change into and then was on her way.

By the time she got to the bathrooms, Syaoran was leaving the men's side with a distinctly refreshed look about him. He winked as he passed her and she mentally put a curse on him.

For once on the trip, Sakura had a small stroke of luck. There were actually two empty showers so she wouldn't have to wait in line. With a small bounce to her step, she went into the first empty shower and placed her shampoos, soaps, and towel down and promptly twisted the knob that would give her some fresh, clean relief known as water.

A small trickle of what smelled like river water dribbled out of the shower head. Confused, Sakura twisted the knob more. A slightly stronger dribble came out of the nozzle, but that was about it. Undaunted, Sakura gathered her things together once more and decided to move to the other empty shower.

The water pressure was much better in this one so Sakura stripped off her clothes and prepared to go about her bathing rituals when something in the corner caught her eye. For a second, she couldn't believe what she was seeing, and rubbed her eyes until they hurt. But there was no denying it… there was poop in the shower.

The sound she made earlier that day when she got bit by a fish had nothing on the shriek she let out. People in nearby campsites would later claim that they thought someone was being hacked to death with a butter knife.

Not caring who saw, Sakura grabbed her stuff and ran, buck naked, into the shower with the crappy water pressure. Sure, she would have to jump around just to get wet, but at least there were no feces in sight. Needless to say, the park janitorial staff would be receiving a very strongly worded complaint from her in the near future.

By the time she was finished showering and dressed, her heart rate had had time to calm down. Trying to relax her frayed nerves and think positive, she stepped out of the bathroom and into the rain. There was a slight awning next to the restrooms that Sakura quickly jumped back under.

Sakura stared at the drizzling rain and rolled her eyes heavenward.

"What did I do in a previous life to deserve this?" Great, now she was talking to herself.

Not wanting to get dirty again, she decided to stay put until the rain let up. However, there was no telling how long that would be.

"Can I not get a break?" she asked out loud and groaned. That was when she heard it – a distinct buzzing. Knowing what she was about to see, but still somehow hoping that she was wrong, Sakura tilted her head up towards the ceiling and saw the biggest bee hive she had ever seen.

She took off running into the rain at the speed of light.

As Sakura walked up to her campsite and was about to go into the boy's tent (where the rest of her group was hiding out) the rain stopped. She suddenly had the overwhelming urge to either laugh or cry. Tired of being wet, she decided to laugh.

* * *

"Wow," Syaoran said sympathetically and patted Sakura on the back. "It sounds like you're the star of some strange, dark comedy written by a deranged author." Everyone else nodded from around the picnic table. The towels that they'd used to dry it off were in a pile on the floor.

"You're telling me." Sakura sniffled and wrapped the towel that her cousin had draped over her shoulders earlier tighter around her shoulders. The entire group had poked their heads out of the tent to see what Sakura was laughing about and then was worried that she lost her mind. After her explanation of the whole shower experience, they all understood and even her mother was being nice… well, nic-ER at any rate.

"In any case, now that the rain stopped, we might actually be able to get a fire going and cook some dinner," Fujitaka said while digging through the ice chest.

"Really?" Sakura perked up at the mention of food. "What are we having?"

"Hamburgers," Fujitaka said, and Sakura began to salivate.

"Hamburgers?" Nadesico echoed, sounding surprised. Unfortunately, this didn't bode well for dinner plans.

"Yes," Fujitaka said slowly and rose from his crouched position to look at his wife. "Hamburgers."

"I thought we bought the stuff to make hotdogs," Nadesico replied, blinking.

"No." Fujitaka lifted what was clearly hamburger meat out of the ice chest. "Hamburgers."

"Oh." Nadesico looked a bit sheepish. "Well, then we might have a problem." Somehow, this didn't surprise Sakura in the least. Nadesico dug around in the other container that had all of their food and pulled out hotdog buns. "See?"

Both of Sakura's parents started laughing. Apparently, they found it to be an amusing little mistake. Sakura, however, thought about asking how they were both stupid enough not to notice that they were buying the wrong things.

"Oh well," Syaoran said from beside her. Sakura raised an eyebrow at him but he just said, "You can't change the past."

"Yup," Fujitaka agreed. "This is just a minor blip on the radar. It's easily fixed. Someone's just going to have to go to the grocery store and get hamburger buns."

"Or hotdogs," Touya added.

"We also should probably get some more firewood, if we want to keep it going for a while," Yukito chimed in, pointing to the wood pile. It was running pretty low.

"Okay, we'll divide up into teams to make it go faster so we can eat sooner," Nadesico announced - without consulting anyone else, Sakura noticed.

"Me and Fujitaka will stay here and get the fire started." Meaning Fujitaka would stay there and get the fire started, and Nadesico would watch. "So… who wants to go to the store?"

Whoever didn't go the store was going to have to go trekking through the trees and searching for wood. That job didn't sound particularly appealing.

"I'll go!" Sakura and Syaoran said at the same time.

Touya narrowed his eyes and glared at Syaoran. "What if I wanted to go to the store?"

"Too bad," Syaoran said snottily. "You should have said so faster."

Ignoring the testosterone flares between her brother and cousin Sakura asked, "So, who is surrendering their keys?"

"There's still a lot of stuff in the car, so why don't you two take Touya's truck?" Fujitaka answered. He was still digging around in one of the cases, presumably for the lighter fluid.

If it was possible, Touya's face puckered even more.

"I'll drive!" Sakura chirped. Touya's puckered expression loosened up into more of a smirk.

"What is _that_ look for?" Syaoran asked, knowing that something had to be up for Touya to look so evilly happy.

"Have you ever had Sakura drive you somewhere?"

"No."

"Hmm."

Sakura ignored this exchange, as she did with most. "Where are your keys?"

"In my blue bag in the tent," Touya answered. He was still giving Syaoran a malevolent stare.

Without another word, Sakura shrugged off her towel and hop/skipped to the boy's tent. She always loved when she got to drive her brother's truck.

Annoyance ticked at the side of her brain when Sakura saw her brother's luggage.

"All of his stupid bags are blue," She muttered and began to rifle through them. It was in the second bag she was going through that something caught her eye.

"Why that son of a…"

Touya was hoarding Milano cookies! She knew they were his favorite, but geeze! Stingy! Did he not trust her or something?

With an indignant huff, she continued searching for the keys.

* * *

Sakura felt right at home behind the wheel in her brother's truck. It always made her feel powerful, but she still vowed not to let it go to her head and drive like a jackass. Unlike most truck drivers…

"So, how far to the store?" Syaoran asked from the passenger's seat.

"Why?" Sakura sent a slightly suspicious look at him from the corner of her eye.

"I'm just curious. Is it a crime to want to know?"

"No, but I don't really believe you when you say it's an innocent question."

Sakura could see the smile Syaoran was giving her in her peripheral vision and, for some reason, it made her heart thump.

"I had no ulterior motives. You're not a scary driver like Touya was trying to make you seem."

"Is that so?" Sakura asked, while purposefully swerving the truck from side to side and causing Syaoran to grab onto the door like it was a life raft. Several pedestrians gave them scathing looks and a lot of extra room.

"Cut it out!"

Sakura just laughed. "I'm sorry! Did that bother you? I'll behave." That didn't stop her from snickering at the stricken look on Syaoran's face though.

"Har har," he said dryly. "You made your point."

However, Sakura's mind was already elsewhere. She was glaring at the rearview mirror. "Now, what does this asshole think he's doing? The only thing that should be creeping up my ass is my underwear."

"Nice, Sakura," Syaoran said, scrunching up his face at her crude choice of wording. "That's very ladylike."

Sakura rolled her eyes heavenward, "Psh. I think we're far past the faux polite act," and before she could stop herself, "For goodness's sake, you've had your tongue down my throat!"

The truck was suddenly filled with a very awkward silence.

Why? Why?! WHY?! Why would she say such a thing! Bringing it up like that made it seem like it has been on or mind or something! And it wasn't! Not _really_ at any rate.

Terrified, Sakura slowly snuck a glace at her cousin. Just as she suspected, he was smirking.

"I thought there was an unspoken agreement that we weren't going to talk about that? It doesn't bother me, but I never thought _you_ would be the one to bring it up."

Sakura diverted her eyes. "That's because, I, uh, didn't. Nuh."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Wow, this guy is really riding my butt!" It was a blatant attempt at a subject change and, for a second, she didn't think he was going to let her get away with it.

It took a while, but Syaoran finally said, "What are you going to do about it? Pull over so he can pass you?"

"Like hell!" Sakura exclaimed, falling into her aggressive mode. "I'm already going a couple of miles over the speed limit! There are pedestrians everywhere! He doesn't need to be going any faster." This was her perfect example of a truck driving asshole.

"I think he's going to try and pass you anyways."

"Oh yea?" And with that, Sakura shifted the wheel so that they were in the center of the small road. There was no way he could pass her now. And just to put the icing on the cake, she eased her foot off the gas and watched at the speedometer needle crept down to five miles under the speed limit.

"Hm…" Syaoran said, looking in the rearview mirror. "It's probably a good thing that we can't read lips right about now."

"Stop looking so nervous, you wuss. The store is just a couple blocks away anyways."

Luckily for the truck guy, he wasn't going to the store so they were soon out of his way. He sent them a one fingered wave as he drove past that Sakura readily sent back. Syaoran just shook his head at her antics.

"Don't look at me like that," She said. "I'm not some truck-driving asshole."

"Sure you aren't."

"Shut up."

Sakura was going in a slow crawl in the tiny parking lot when, from out of nowhere, a girl stepped in front of the truck. Sakura slammed on the brakes and then drummed her fingers on the wheel as the blonde took her sweet time. She didn't even look at them as she sauntered past, flipping her hair and gabbing on a cell phone.

"Bitch thinks she's too pretty to die," Sakura said, shamelessly. Syaoran gave her a bug-eyed stare. "Oh, please, like you weren't thinking the same thing."

* * *

"Land!" Syaoran exclaimed and scrambled to get out of the truck, lugging the grocery bags with him. He was met with peals of laughter from the group sitting around the campfire, all of which had let Sakura drive them somewhere in the past.

"Yay! Food!" Sakura cried upon spying the hamburgers already cooking over the fire.

"They're just about done." Fujitaka smiled.

"What's with all the bags?" Nadesico asked and gestured to the load that Syaoran was carrying.

"You sent me to the grocery store on an empty stomach," Sakura said, by way of explanation. "Oh, and thanks for buying me a new bathing suit."

Nadesico arched one eyebrow. "When did I do that?"

"Just now! Don't worry, it wasn't expensive." Sakura set down the single bag she was carrying on the table as she passed it. It also happened to be the lightest bag.

"And just what was wrong with your old one?"

Sakura was about to answer but her brother beat her to it. "You don't know?"

Nadesico shook her head.

"Well, it was bound to happen," Touya said sadly, and hung his head. The whole group looked at him, questioningly.

"What?" Yukito finally asked.

"Sakura's butt expanded so much that it burst out of her bathing suit!" And that sent everyone except Sakura into fresh peals of laughter.

"Actually, I ripped it on a rock, but okay." She rolled her eyes and began stomping over to the boys' tent. "While the rest of you are laughing at me, I'm going to put Touya's keys away."

Inside the tent, she could still hear her family laughing away like it was the funniest thing they had ever heard. Feeling resentful, she quickly grabbed the bag she retrieved the keys from and stuffed them back in. She was just about to leave the tent when an evil idea popped into her head and made her freeze.

Quickly, as to not arouse any suspicion, Sakura grabbed one of Touya's other bags from earlier and began fishing around. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. Sakura hurriedly stuffed the bag of Milanos up the back of her shirt like it was some kind of contraband. And, in a way, it was.

The next part included sneaking it past her family so it was a bit tricky. She actually surprised herself by eluding everyone's attention enough to slip the bag out of her shirt and stow it away in the grocery bag she put on the table. I'm sure it wouldn't surprise you to know that she was humming the mission impossible song in her head as she did it either.

Mission successfully completed, Sakura plopped down onto the empty spot in between Syaoran and her mother and grinned like a shark.

"What have you been up to?" Nadesico asked after taking a sip of her diet coke.

"What do you mean?" Sakura cocked her head to the side, innocently.

"You look like the cat that just ate the canary."

"You mean my smile?" Sakura kept on smiling, she couldn't help it. "I'm just trying to make myself be cheery. I realize that I'm snarky and I complain a lot and –"

"That's for sure," Touya piped up.

Sakura's eye twitched, but she continued. "And I'm going to try to change. I've decided to be nicer to people."

"Sure you did," Syaoran muttered, but he was quiet enough so that she was the only one who could hear him.

"Good for you, honey," Fujitaka praised.

"Thanks!" Sakura turned up the voltage on her smile so that nearby campers would be blinded. "I'll go get everyone paper plates." She was only doing it because she was afraid that she would break into laughter under the pressure. She needed to get away for a second. It was kind of amusing to see the incredulous looks on the non-believers faces though.

The first bite of juicy burger was absolute heaven for Sakura. Sadly, that was probably the only bite of it she actually tasted. Once her stomach was triggered, the rest of her burger was practically inhaled and she was left to lick her fingers clean.

"Pass the chips," she said while still licking her chops.

"Damn." Syaoran shook his head and slid the bag of Doritos towards the ravenous girl. "That burger didn't stand a chance. I'm just curious – have you ever heard of chewing?"

"Oh, bite me." Sakura ripped open the bag and promptly shoved two Doritos in her mouth. "I've had a hard day and it left me famished."

"Yes, but there's no reason to resort to cannibalism!" Touya chimed in. Yukito shook his head in disdain, but Sakura was almost positive that he was trying not to smile once again. It seemed that sweet little Yukito had been converted to the dark side. Well, that was just unacceptable!

Sakura turned her attention to her brother and smiled serenely at him. "I know you are trying to get a rise out of me, but it's going to take a lot more than that."

Touya met her eyes dead on and smirked. "We'll see. I think I know you better than that."

Sakura shrugged, nonchalant. He knew her well, but not well enough to prevent what she was about to do. "That reminds me! I got a little something for desert at the store!" She leapt to her feet and headed for the picnic table. She returned with the bag of Milanos in hand.

"Cookies!" She exclaimed and ripped the bag open. Delicately, she removed the first cookie from the bag and took a tantalizingly slow bite. "Ummmm… delicious!"

Syaoran looked slightly confused. "I don't remember buy-"

"Try one!" Sakura cut him off and stuffed the rest of her uneaten cookie in his mouth. Syaoran choked on the sudden invasion in his mouth and started coughing.

"Oh dear," Sakura said sympathetically. "I thought you would like it." He glared up at her, his face flushed from effort, but the glare faded when he caught the wink she sent for his eyes only.

By this time, the bag was making its way around the campfire, as everyone took three or four cookies at a time. Apparently, Sakura wasn't the only one that was left hungry after the day's activities. When the bag made it back to Sakura, there were only a couple cookies left. She pulled one out for herself and then looked across the campfire at her brother.

"Do you want the last one, Touya?"

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why?"

Sakura blinked back at him, innocently. "Because I know they are your favorites and I'm trying to be nicer person. Are you trying to keep me from being a better person?"

"No." Touya moved and plucked the cookie from her proffered hands and took a bite. "I still just don't think I believe you. I think there's a catch."

Sakura just shrugged and sighed, as if to say 'Think what you want.' Inside, she was doing a little dance that he had partaken in the destruction of his own bag of cookies. Small victory, but that didn't make it taste any less sweet.

* * *

Sakura was so physically exhausted by the time she crawled into her tent for sleep that she knew she would be unconscious before her head even hit the pillow. This was despite the cramped position that she had to take to fit her whole body in her miniscule sleeping quarters. She also knew that nothing short of a stampede would be able to wake her from her deep sleep.

She was wrong.

Sakura was jerked out of her blissfully peaceful slumber by the loudest clap of thunder she had ever heard in her life. It was so loud in fact, for a moment, Sakura thought she had peed on herself in fright. Then her brain finally managed to catch up with what her eyes were seeing and the night's true events managed to sink in.

Her entire tent was flooded with rainwater - and not with just a couple of puddles creeping in on the corners. Her tent was completely flooded.

It was a miracle that it was the thunder that managed to wake her up, because any longer and she probably would have sucked in water instead of air.

Sakura sat there, unmoving, for what felt like hours but was probably just a minute or two. She sat there long enough to take in her wet luggage, blankets, pillows, sleeping bag, and (of course) her soaked pajamas and hair. It was like the ants, but with water.

Well, not only was her tent meant for someone four feet tall, apparently there was a leak.

Sakura was pretty calm about everything (despite the fact that she no longer had anything to wear) until she remembered that her iPod was in her duffle bag. Damn. Now she would have to listen to crappy music the whole ride home. Enraged beyond all comprehension, Sakura knew exactly who to take her frustrations out on.

"Mother!" She shrieked and unzipped her tent. Her voice was drowned out by the thunder that was so close; it was practically in sync with the lightning that accompanied it.

She took one step into the pouring rain and right into a big mud puddle. Thankfully, she was able to catch her balance before falling, but it was a close one. The rain was cold and went straight through her clothes, but she didn't care. She was on a mission! It was her mother's fault that she was on this stupid camping trip in the first place, not to mention the reason she ended up with the crappy tent.

Not even bothering with shoes, Sakura stomped right past the boys' tent and across the campsite to approach her parent's tent. She was just about to unzip the flap when a strange sound caught her ears. It sounded like a moan. Sakura froze and tried to blink the water out of her eyes. Thunder clapped again as she turned her better ear towards the tent and tried to make out exactly what it was she was hearing. The thunder died down and… there! That was it!

There was a feminine moan followed by a squeak and then a manlier guttural moan.

"Yes, that's it!" Nadesico's voice whispered, but to Sakura who was paying close attention, it was clear as day.

"Oh, God!" Fujitaka moaned right back.

Sakura stood unmoving, frozen if you will, by the absolute horror that washed over her when she finally realized what she was hearing. It was the worst nightmare of every child, the world over… she was listening to her parents have sex!

Her anger was completely gone and now shock took its place. There was no way she was going in there!

Still not quite thinking clearly, Sakura took a step backwards and promptly slipped on the slick mud. She fell flat on her butt and let out a squeak just as the thunder clapped again. Pretty convenient really, but she kind of doubted her parents would have heard her anyways. They seemed occupied.

Desperately, she scrambled to her feet and ran to the only other place she could – the boy's tent.

"Medusa!" Syaoran shrieked at her appearance. He reached over to turn on the lantern and the tent flooded with light, "Oh, it's just you."

"Goodness, Sakura. What happened?" Yukito, ever the concerned one, managed to ask after getting a good look at her.

Sakura opened her mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. She tried a few more times, looking like a beached fish until managing to squeak out. "My, uh, tent flooded."

"Well, what are you doing here?" Touya asked, looking at her with bleary eyes. He reached over to pick up his watch and groaned. "It's three in the morning! It's crowded in here. Go sleep in mom and dad's tent!"

"That is not going to happen," Sakura said and shook her head violently, probably trying to get the nights events to get out. It was a good thing she didn't actually see anything or she would have had to gouge her eyes out.

"Why's that?" Touya asked, sitting up.

"They were… busy."

"Busy?"

"Busy."

Touya let out a big sigh. "Care to elaborate?"

"I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want me to."

"Sakura," Touya leveled his gaze with her. "You are covered in mud, I'm tired, I bet Syaoran and Yukito are tired, you are probably tired. Just spit it out already so we can go to sleep."

"They were busy banging," Sakura said and waited for the words to sink into her brother's thick skull. She didn't have to wait long.

"Oh," He said when he regained the ability to speak. "Ew."

"So you can understand why I'm a bit hesitant to sleep with them. That might be odd." Sakura chose that moment to shiver, both from the mental images in her mind and the fact that she was soaked to the bone in cold rain water.

"Well, why don't you get your stuff and just sleep in here?" Syaoran offered and started moving his stuff to make room.

"Like hell she is you little pervert!" Touya barked.

Syaoran rolled his eyes. "Of course, she's going to sleep next to _you_, you dolt. Don't be an idiot." Surprisingly, Touya didn't have anything to say back to that. He must have been _really_ tired.

"I don't think you understand," Sakura began to further explain. "My tent is FLOODED. As in, completely. There is not one dry thing in there."

"Wow," Yukito said yawning. "Tough luck."

"All your clothes? What are you going to change into?" Touya asked.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. This third degree was lasting just a little too long for her taste and she was getting cold! "I thought I would sleep naked. How does that sound?"

All three boys' eyes bugged out at her.

"It was a joke. Can I borrow some clothes?"

"Sure." Syaoran was the first to reply. He pulled his duffle bag towards him and began to dig around.

"What makes you think she's going to wear your clothes? What if she wants to wear mine or Yukito's clothes?" Touya's voice had a slight edge to it.

"Uh, because I'm the smallest guy here," Syaoran replied. "So my clothes are the most likely to kind of fit her."

Sakura shivered again and then growled. "Can we argue about whose penis is bigger later? I'm freezing balls right now!"

Luckily, that little statement was enough to snap the boys into action. Syaoran picked out a pair of boxers ("Those better be clean!") and a t-shirt for Sakura to wear, Yukito found a towel she could use to clean up with, and Touya resituated all of his stuff to make room for her.

"Okay," Sakura said, holding her new clothes. "You guys are going to have to turn around and close your eyes."

"Huh?" All three said at the same time.

"I have to change clothes and I'm not going to let you watch!" Sakura said, by way of explanation.

"You're going to change in here?" Touya asked.

"Well, where else am I supposed to change? Outside in the rain?"

"No, but-"

Sakura growled. "There's no other way. Believe me. If there was, I would take it. It's not a big deal; I change clothes in front of girls all the time." The boys looked slightly offended at that. "So just do what I say!"

"Don't you dare peek," Touya sent as a warning to Syaoran, who just rolled his eyes heavenward.

"If he does, I'll be sure to let you know," Sakura said, grinning at the stricken expression on Syaoran's face.

When the boys finally decided to comply with her demands, Sakura was left to stare at the backs of their heads. Despite what she said, she was feeling VERY odd about this whole situation. It was true that she changed in front of girls in the locker room, but she had never had reason to take her bra and panties off. Since her present undergarments were just as soaked and muddy as her clothes, it was unfortunately not an option.

In fact, this whole situation was vaguely reminiscent of the time she cut her back shaving and Syaoran had to help her bandage it. But then it had only been him in the room with her.

Deciding that it was best to get it over with, like ripping off a Band-Aid, she quickly dropped her shorts and panties to the floor and shook them off the end of her foot. She made quick work with the towel to clean herself off and hurriedly pulled on Syaoran's boxers. Despite him being the smallest guy there, his boxers seemed awfully loose. Not to mention she felt like an exhibitionist going commando underneath. In the hope that they wouldn't fall off, Sakura rolled the waistband a few times to make them feel tighter. It took less time for her to change her t-shirt and get situated.

Now all she had to do was tell them it was okay to turn around. Sakura was left to sigh mentally. All she had on now was a flimsy pair of boxers and a t-shirt. No bra or panties. Even though they wouldn't really be able to tell the difference, she knew the truth. It also didn't help to know that she was wearing Syaoran's boxers, which he himself had to have worn without anything on underneath. The thought made her flush slightly.

Yup, she was a perverted exhibitionist.

"Okay, I'm dressed," Sakura finally said and watched as they turned around. It didn't escape her attention that Syaoran's gaze lingered over her longer than the other's.

"Alright." Touya lifted his covers so that Sakura could crawl in next to him. "Let's go to sleep now."

Sakura barely got situated by the time Touya barked at Syaoran to turn the lantern off. Apparently, someone was sleepy.

Unfortunately, Sakura didn't feel the same. The night's events had given her an adrenaline rush and she didn't feel like she was going to be able to sleep any time soon.

"I'm not sleepy," Sakura said, hoping that someone else would say 'me either' and they would be able to talk for a while – the way girls do during slumber parties.

"Too bad," Touya grumbled and rolled over so that his back was to her.

"But I had a very traumatic evening."

"Ungh."

"…"

Sakura heard Syaoran snicker from the other side of the tent.

"I mean, why me?" Sakura continued, ignoring Touya's growl of frustration. "I have had absolutely NO luck on this entire trip. I heard the sounds my parents make when they're having sex for goodness sake!"

"Do you not have an 'off' button?" Touya snapped. Obviously, their parents getting down with their bad selves about 20 feet from where they were sleeping was not something he wanted to think about.

"I've just had so much bad luck on this trip that it's not even funny!" Sakura continued anyways.

"It's a little bit funny," Syaoran replied. Yukito snorted.

"Oh, just shut up, both of you!" Sakura whined, but there was laughter in her voice.

"Would you stop talking if I gave you a cookie?" Touya asked, a begging quality to his voice.

Sakura clammed up at this question. For a while there, she had forgotten about the evil prank she played on her brother at dinner. "Um… we ate all the cookies."

"I had some stashed away, okay?" Touya sat up and started digging around in his bag. "But if giving you one is enough to shut you up so I can get some sleep, then it is a sacrifice I am willing to make."

Sakura didn't say anything.

There was a few minutes of Touya rummaging through one bag… and then another… and another.

"That's strange." Touya scratched the side of his head. "I can't seem to find them."

"Weird," Sakura squeaked out and burst into laughter.

Touya stared at her, until it dawned on him. "Were those cookies from dinner… MINE?!"

"Oh!" Syaoran exclaimed, and then also started to laugh. "So that's what that wink was about!"

While Sakura and Syaoran were laughing, Yukito was trying to catch up and Touya was busy breathing heavy. It occurred to Sakura that now would probably be a good time to make her escape, but she didn't make it in time. Touya pounced.

"Why you little-"

"No!" Sakura wailed; she couldn't stand to be tickled. Since she was extremely ticklish to the point of it hurting, she was every sadist's dream. She wiggled and squirmed to try and get away from her brother, but it was to no avail. He was bigger and taller and just had the advantage all around, so there was no way she would be able to free herself.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, Touya's waggling fingers managed to find the ultra-sensitive part on her side and her knee jerked on reflex - right into Touya's ultra-sensitive parts.

Everyone in the tent froze.

Time stood still until Touya fell over on his side and curled into a ball. Syaoran started laughing uncontrollably at this point, but silently so Touya wouldn't know.

"Uh, Touya, I really didn't mean to do that. I'm so sorry-"

"Get away," Touya managed to say through his pain.

"But I-"

"I think maybe you ought to sleep between me and Syaoran," Yukito murmured. Touya nodded vigorously.

"But-"

"Go!" Touya barked.

Even though Sakura was pretty sure that Touya would never tell her to sleep next to Syaoran if he was in his right mind, she really didn't think now would be a good time to argue with him.

"Fine."

Touya managed to crawl back under his blankets and the lights were turned out again. It wasn't long before his ragged breath calmed down and then became even. Yukito (whom she was sharing a pillow and blanket with) took a little longer to fall asleep, but not by much.

Pretty soon Sakura was left alone in the dark with her thoughts. Her back was to Yukito so that she was facing Syaoran, who appeared to be breathing evenly. So, naturally, that was where her mind wandered. She could barely make out his outline in the dark, but it was enough to see the edges of his mussed up hair. She sucked in a deep breath to sigh and her nostrils were assaulted by his smell. At first she thought it was because he was so close, but a second deep breath told her that the smell was coming from _her_.

Oh, she told herself mentally. Duh. She was wearing his clothes! Of course they smelled like him. It was an intoxicating scent really. Very clean, almost like soap but she knew that wasn't what it was. They used the exact same soap and clothes detergent. This smell was somehow all him. Sakura breathed deep again.

"Are you sniffing me?" Syaoran's voice whispered through the dark. It was a quiet question, but the unexpectedness of it shook Sakura to the core.

"I thought you were asleep! You scared me!"

"Is that why you were molesting me with your nose? Am I just that irresistible?"

Sakura made a face at him, even though she knew he wouldn't be able to see. "You smell funny. Don't get a big head."

Syaoran turned over so he was facing her. Sakura couldn't make out any details, but she was somehow sure that his eyes were bearing into hers. "Sexual harassment now?"

"Ha ha," She choked out.

"That trick with the cookies was great," he whispered, moving even closer so she could hear him better. It was obvious he didn't want to raise his voice and risk waking up Yukito or Touya.

"Yes, well, I have my moments."

"You're so evil."

Sakura smirked. "Don't act like you don't like it."

"I never said I didn't." There was laughter in Syaoran's voice and Sakura could feel him move his arm. She jumped when she felt his fingertips brush against her face.

"Hey, buddy. None of that. You're breaking the truce," she whispered, trying to put a stern warning in her voice. It was harder to do than she expected.

"I promise I'm not going to do anything. I just want to touch your face." When Sakura didn't have anything else to say to that, he continued.

Syaoran ran the back of his fingertips lightly across and down her cheek, down under her chin, and back to cup her other cheek. His hold lingered for a few seconds and then he dropped his hand.

"There. I'll stop now."

Without even being aware of what she was doing, Sakura reached out in the dark and wrapped her hand around the base of Syaoran's neck. Exerting pressure, she pulled his head forward and pressed an open-mouthed kiss on his lips. Syaoran didn't move at all. Sakura wet her lips and went for it again.

This time, it seemed that Syaoran had had time to recover and he responded by moving his lips slowly against hers. It was nice, but not quite what Sakura wanted. Taking the lead, Sakura exerted more pressure and added some tongue. It occurred to her at that movement that this was the first time she had ever been so bold. She was the one making the moves!

Syaoran allowed her to deepen the kiss, but made no move to advance. Sakura was so into the kiss, she didn't really even think about it when she reached out to grab his wrist and place his hand on her upper hip. She covered his hand with her own and squeezed. Syaoran took the hint and began digging his fingers into the flesh of her hip, changing from light to slightly harder pressure.

It felt like her brain had shut down and was running on full circuits at the same time. All of her reasons for why she shouldn't be doing this just didn't seem important anymore. It was the power of night. It makes anything seem like it was possible, something to be taken care of on the brand new day. Mornings were for realization and worries. Sakura was tired of being rational and worrying. For now, she would just obey her gut instinct.

Mind made up, Sakura wrapped her tiny fingers around Syaoran's shoulder and pulled him closer. He didn't resist, even moving himself so they were almost pressed against each other. Not only could Sakura feel the heat radiating off of him, she was completely engulfed by his smell. She knew she herself probably didn't smell like a rose at that moment and vaguely wondered how he could still smell so good in the middle of a camping trip.

For the first time since Sakura initiated this kiss, Syaoran moved of his own accord. His hand moved so that he was brushing the blunt edges of his fingernails along her lower belly. The movement caused Sakura's stomach to contract and a small gasp to escape her lips.

Although the sound was barely audible, Touya snorted and rolled over in his sleep. However much Sakura hated to admit it, she was not THAT much of an exhibitionist and the reminder that her brother was a couple feet away was enough to kill the mood.

"Syaoran," Sakura whispered, barely even making a sound.

"I know," Syaoran replied, just as silently. He gave her one more lingering kiss and patted her hip. "Go to sleep."

Almost afraid that she wouldn't be able to, Sakura detached herself from his arms and flipped over. She could still smell him so she wiggled a bit closer to Yukito.

Sakura lay awake long after Syaoran's breath turned even and felt like she was never going to be able to sleep again. Her heart was left pounding from the excursion and she just couldn't shake it. Her brain was so overcrowded with thoughts, that she couldn't hold on to one thought long enough to figure out a solution to the problem. The full extent of what she'd just done had yet to sink in. Sleep finally came when she decided she would save this for the morning.

Mornings were for realization and worries.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Sakura was awake but had yet to open her eyes. The tent was starting to get stuffy in a way that let her know the sun was blaring down on it. There was no denying it – it was morning and time to face the day, along with all the problems that came with it.

Sakura forced her eyes open and came face to face with Syaoran. She was startled because of his proximity but calmed down some when she noticed he was still asleep. Somehow, she felt incredibly lucky at the chance to truly examine him without him knowing.

His dark brown hair was mussed and falling in his face, his natural curl making the ends twist in various directions. His eyelashes were long, his jaw strong. If she looked close enough, she could see a light spattering of freckles across his nose. She reached up a hand to touch them and noticed that his skin was tanned bronze compared to her own. She stopped herself before making contact with his skin and let her hand drop. This really was no good.

It seemed she was falling for him.

That was a scary thought for Sakura who never had to deal with those types of feelings before. Things were doubly confusing because of WHO she was feeling that way for. Syaoran. Her cousin.

Well, he had been her cousin for about ten years now at any rate. Sakura could still remember the first time she'd met him – it was at her uncle's wedding.

She was so excited at the prospect of having a cousin, especially once she heard he was only a couple months younger than her. She'd heard stories from her friends about the misadventures they had with their cousins. They even looked forward to family events! A cousin was someone you could play with during boring family gatherings, they said. Her seven year old heart practically had palpitations at the prospect. Up until that point, Sakura only had her brother and he was too busy trying to act mature since he had finally reached the double digits in age.

So, when Sakura had seen the small boy dressed smartly in a tux and sending a death glare at her uncle her heart practically dropped to the floor. Not only were his eyes narrowed dangerously, his tiny hands were clenched angrily on the pillow that held the wedding rings. This was definitely not what she expected!

As the wedding march began and the second most beautiful woman she had ever seen in person (her mother being the first, of course) walked down the aisle, Touya whispered the boy's story in her ear.

Syaoran's father left shortly after he was born, leaving his mother to raise a new born child all by herself. She was a strong woman, even Sakura could see that. She looked regal and just had an air of superiority about her that was impossible to miss. Her face was stern, but her eyes were kind. Sakura actually thought it was refreshing compared to her mother's eccentricities. Nadesico had always been a bit… strange.

Still, Touya continued, that meant Syaoran had been raised exclusively by his mother and was unusually attached to her. Thus, he had quite a bit of animosity for his new step father.

"Mama's boy," Touya explained, chortling. Even then, Sakura though that was bit rich coming from her brother. A case of the pot calling the kettle black, as it were. Nadesico had the tendency to dote on her son and Touya wasn't exactly begging her to stop. Still, Touya was quite a bit bigger than her and she hadn't yet figured out that he wouldn't beat her up, so she bit her tongue. It would take her a couple more years to discover that little gem…

Sakura turned her attention back to the ceremony and watched as Syaoran's eyes softened when he saw his mother approach. That made Sakura a little more hopeful; perhaps he really was a kind boy. Maybe that glare was reserved for his stepfather.

So, with new resolve, Sakura vowed to introduce herself to him at the reception and get started with their new friendship!

She spotted him when she was in the middle of eating a slice of the groom's cake (chocolate!) and leapt to her feet.

"Hi! I'm Sakura," Sakura chirped, extending her hand and giving him a 100 volt smile.

Syaoran just stared at her from where he was sitting next to his mother. The raven haired bride was busy talking to the people on her other side and not paying attention to the two cute youngsters.

Undeterred, Sakura thought she should probably elaborate. "Sakura Kinomoto."

Comprehension dawned on his face but he still said nothing and ignored her outstretched hand. Feeling a bit awkward, Sakura dropped her arm and clasped her hands behind her back. She watched as he took a bite of white bride's cake and cleared her throat. "Starting today, we're cousins so-"

"Kinomotos suck," Syaoran said simply, cutting her off. Sakura felt her face flush, either from embarrassment or anger – she couldn't be sure. "Oh, and you have food in your teeth." And with that, he turned his back to her and continued eating his cake.

Yup, definitely anger.

Sakura put her hand on the back of his smug head and smashed his face into the cake he was eating. Needless to say, neither of them left a very good first impression on the other. Their family had to be very careful about leaving the two of them together unsupervised after that.

At least family get-togethers were no longer boring. Each one usually turned into a battle in the long war of their relationship. Tomoyo accompanied the gatherings sometimes, but she stayed out of their fights. The adults were powerless to stop it and Touya didn't even try. In fact, on rare occasions he would even help his sister. This went on until they entered high school and matured enough to tolerate each other's presences.

They really had to suck it up a couple months ago when it was decided Syaoran would spend the summer with Sakura's family. His mother and step-father were having problems and needed some time alone to work it out. Sakura had her misgivings but was surprised when Syaoran showed up, looking oddly subdued. She had the sneaking suspicion that his step-father had grown on him since the wedding and he really didn't want them to separate.

Being the compassionate person she was, Sakura decided to be kind to him. That lasted about five minutes.

But, as we all know, things had changed. Sakura was left to speculate when things had shifted from hate to (dare she say it?) love. Had they ever really hated each other? No. It was just their personalities clashing as they got to know each other. Syaoran was going through a change in life, and Sakura… well, Sakura is just difficult.

When did he start loving her? Sakura wondered. Maybe it was from the beginning. That was how young boys showed their feelings, right? Picking on girls? If that was the case, it would make sense. Plus, there was the added obstacle of being related – even if it was just by marriage. They weren't supposed to feel like that for each other. No telling how their family would react.

Sakura squelched that dreary thought and sat up, preparing to leave the tent. It was getting hot being stuck in a tent with three other people after all.

Sakura unzipped the flap of the tent and stepped, barefoot, onto the grass and dirt. She sighed mentally. She needed to fish out some flip flops from her tent and let them dry. She also needed to dry a bunch of her clothes. Ugh, something to look forward to.

Sakura was in the middle of stretching out the kinks in her neck when she noticed her mother. Great, another thing she was dreading – her parents. After what she heard them doing last night, she wasn't entirely sure she would be able to act natural around them.

That thought was fleeting however when she took a better look at her mother. Nadesico had her thin hands wrapped around a coffee mug and was staring blankly. She looked deep in thought, and strangely downcast. It wasn't a look that Sakura was used to seeing on her mother. Nadesico was usually annoyingly confident and full of life. Nadesico was so out of it in fact, that she didn't notice her daughter's presence until Sakura waved a hand in front of her eyes.

She jumped a little bit and blinked her eyes to adjust. "Oh! Hey, Sakura."

And that was it.

Confused that her mother wasn't talking a mile a minute, Sakura said playfully, "Hey mom. Whatcha doin'?"

Nadesico smiled faintly. "Just having my morning coffee."

Sakura was just about to ask if she was okay, when Nadesico set her mug down and stood up. "Well, I better go to the bathroom and get cleaned up. We have a lot of things planned for the day. You should do the same!"

"Right," Sakura said, and watched her mother's retreating form. Curious, she peeked into the mug and saw it was practically full.

"Strange, huh?" Fujitaka said from behind Sakura, causing her to jump a mile in the air.

"Dad! You scared me!"

Fujitaka smiled slightly. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Sakura replied, but was still taking deep breaths to calm herself down. Her father sat down in the spot Nadesico had vacated and patted the spot next to him, indicating Sakura should sit there. She obeyed, not even thinking of the awkwardness last night may have caused.

"I'm worried about your mother," Fujitaka said lowly. Sakura furrowed her brow at the seriousness in his voice. "She's seemed off for a while."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, clearly confused. Today was the first time she'd noticed anything. She said as much to her father.

Fujitaka picked up Nadesico's abandoned mug and took a sip. "It's been going on for some time now. Didn't you wonder why she sprang this trip on us all of a sudden? Something's up and she wanted to get her mind off it."

"Oh," Sakura said, feeling foolish for thinking her mother planned this trip because of the tension between herself and Syaoran. "Not really. I've never seen her like this before."

Fujitaka sent a sidelong glance at his daughter. "I have."

Suddenly, Sakura knew what he was talking about without him actually having to say it. It happened around her third birthday. She was too young to remember much, but there was a time that Nadesico disappeared for a few days. The only thing Sakura remembered vividly from that time was that it was the first and only time she'd ever seen her father cry. Her family didn't like to talk about it since it was a very dark time in their history, but they did tell her that Nadesico had a bit of a nervous breakdown. She spent those days driving around in her car, no destination in mind. Just driving. Stress, the doctor diagnosed. A bunch of things piling up on her until it just got to be too much. The adults wouldn't tell her any more than that. But Nadesico came back after a few days, so it ended well. She went to counseling and they went on with their lives.

As she got older, Sakura would wonder if maybe she was one of those 'things'. Curiosity finally got the best of her when she was in junior high and she did a bit of digging around. Touya found out and put a stop to it, but not before she discovered that their mother had been disowned by their grandfather. Their family had a big discussion about it, but decided that Sakura was still a little too young to know everything. They just confirmed that, yes; Nadesico (and essentially THEY) had been disowned.

"You know…" Fujitaka said and looked down at the mug in his hands. "Your grandfather never exactly liked or approved of me."

"Why?" Sakura asked. She couldn't believe that anyone could have a problem with her father.

"I dunno. Maybe I rubbed him the wrong way." He shot her a playful look. "You had to get your CHARMING personality from somewhere, right?"

"Right," Sakura said, not really believing him. She had always just assumed that her personality quirks came from her mother. Sakura and her father weren't anything alike. Fujitaka was a nice father and she was… well, she didn't really want to think about it. On the other hand, people change. So there really was no way of telling how her father used to be.

"At any rate, he didn't like me," Fujitaka continued. "He was also very vocal about his distaste of my career choice."

"What's wrong with being a lawyer?" Fujitaka sent her a look the moment the words left her mouth. "Oh, haha. Right."

"He also didn't think I had what it took to be in that kind of cutthroat profession. But…" Fujitaka paused as if he wasn't sure he should finish what he wanted to say. "Nadesico got pregnant with Touya and we got married."

That came as no surprise to Sakura, who was good at math and had long ago calculated that Touya was born six months after her parents' wedding. It was kind of weird to have her father talking about all of this though. He had always been pretty tight lipped.

"Your grandfather was furious, but gave up since Nadesico was pregnant. The thing is," Now her father was looking very uncomfortable. "His anger was nothing compared to how mad he got when Nadesico got pregnant with you."

Sakura was actually shocked this time.

"W-why?" She asked, her voice tiny.

"Because Nadesico meant to get pregnant with you." Fujitaka looked over at his daughter guiltily. "He didn't think she would ever PURPOSEFULLY get pregnant by me again. I think he was still hoping we would get divorced."

Sakura swallowed thickly, her mouth dry. This was all news to her.

"Your grandmother was there to help him make sensible choices, but then she died when you were two," Fujitaka trudged on, looking pained at the memories. "Your grandfather refused to come to your third birthday party and your mom got furious. They had a huge fight and he… disowned her."

In a way she HAD been one of those 'things' piling up on her mother.

It all clicked for Sakura. She remembered her grandmother, but not very well. She just remembered how warm and soft she'd been. Her grandfather was the exact opposite. She remembered him even less. Why had she never really thought about her mother's parents? Why they weren't around? Of course she thought about it sometimes, but it never made much of an impression on her. It must have been because she was still so young when they disappeared from her life. She hardly ever saw them to begin with, so it wasn't that big of an adjustment anyways. The whole thing just made her furious at her grandfather. He was heartless.

But why was her father bringing this up now? It was nice that he finally thought she could handle knowing everything, but why did he choose now of all times to unload this on her? It scared Sakura to her core to have her father talking about it. It must have meant that he thought it could happen again. Her throat tightened at the thought.

"Back then," Fujitaka said quietly, "What helped her through it all was knowing that she had a precious family that needed her. She loves us all more than anything."

But what were to happen if something disrupted that family? Sakura thought of Syaoran's sleeping face and her stomach flipped.

Fujitaka turned towards Sakura fully and gave her a big smile. "I know this a lot to unload on you and I'm sorry. I'm not telling you this to scare you; I just thought you should be aware. You know, maybe take it a bit easier on your mother."

"Right," Sakura answered and smiled back, but there was something dark in the pit of her stomach that was making her queasy. Something that she was pretty sure had to do with a certain cousin of hers.

* * *

"How come it seems like girls decompose overnight?" Touya asked upon leaving his tent and spotting Sakura. Yukito and Syaoran trailed out after him.

Sakura had to admit that he had a point – she was looking pretty rough. She blamed that on the camping more than anything else though. Of course, she would never tell him that.

"Well?" Touya posed the question, a lot closer to her face this time.

Sakura pinched her nose closed with one hand and waved the air in front of her with the other. "At least I don't SMELL like it. Maybe you should brush your teeth before you talk this morning."

Syaoran chortled and plopped down next to Sakura on the picnic table. "Aw, don't listen to him. You don't look that bad." He smiled deviously, a twinkle in his eye. "Well… you've looked worse!"

"Har har," Sakura retorted, trying not to look at him. She wouldn't allow herself that. Instead she focused on the makeshift clothesline she had concocted to dry her clothes.

"Is something wrong, Sakura?" Yukito asked with concern in his voice. He and Touya sat on the opposite side of the table. "You don't really seem like yourself right now."

Sakura shook her head. "No, no. I'm fine. Just a bit tired is all."

Sakura was saved from having to further explain herself by her mother, of all people. Once Nadesico returned from the bathroom that morning, she had been back to normal. That was a relief for Sakura, but she was still worried. Now that she was aware of it, is almost seemed like Nadesico was trying TOO hard.

"Yay!" Nadesico squealed like a little girl and set down the bucket full of water she was carrying. "Now that you boys are finally up, we can get started with the day!"

They really had no idea just how lucky they were. Nadesico had just filled that bucket with all intents and purposes of using it to wake them up.

"Hurry up and eat something!" she continued/ "We're going to play in the river! We were going to go bike riding, but Sakura's tennis shoes are soaked, so we can't." Not to mention everything else she owned, Sakura thought woefully.

The boys started digging around for food and Sakura stood up.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Touya asked his sister.

"No. I ate before you got up," Sakura explained. "I'm going to bathroom." She made a detour to her laundry line to grab her damp bathing suit (so she could change into it) and then was on her way.

She didn't really need to go to the bathroom. She just needed an escape. Really, she didn't think she would be having so many problems being with all of them. For some reason, she just kept feeling like she would burst into tears. That wasn't good. If there was one way to get unwanted attention, it was to randomly start crying. So she made her getaway.

"Sakura!"

Sakura knew who it was even before he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. She forced herself to meet Syaoran's concerned gaze without flinching.

"What?" she asked, doing her best to seem genuinely confused.

"What's wrong?" Syaoran asked anyways, unfooled.

"Nothing's wrong. Jeez, Syaoran, you are paranoid." Sakura laughed and tried to brush his hand off her shoulder.

"Sakura." Syaoran caught her hand and held on. "I've already told you I can tell when you're lying."

Anger flared through her body and Sakura latched onto it. She would need it to get through this. She thought about this all morning, and it really was the only way.

"Fine!" Sakura huffed, ripping her hand from his grasp. "You want to know what's wrong with me? You are!"

Syaoran took a half step backwards, hurt flashing across his face momentarily before it was gone. "Why are you so upset?"

"YOU are upsetting me!" Tears prickled in her eyes but she blinked them away. "I can't do this!"

"This?"

"You. Me. Us!" Sakura stumbled across her words, trying to think of the best way to explain it to him. "We can't have THAT kind of relationship. It won't work. There are too many people involved." There was no way she would risk ruining her family and causing her mother more pain.

Sakura chanced a glance at Syaoran and saw that his lips were twisted into a strange smirk. "What's so funny?" she demanded, even sounding bitchy to her own ears.

Syaoran shook his head. "It's not funny so much as, well, it just seems like we've had this conversation before." They had, right after their little make out session when he threw her in the pool. "And remember what happened last night?"

Sakura stared at Syaoran, incredulous. "Your point?"

"My point is that you can't help what you're feeling for me. Last night just proved it. The reasons why we shouldn't don't matter. You love me. It doesn't matter how many times you try to run away, you will come back."

"I don't love you."

"Sure you don't."

White hot anger flared to life in Sakura, the likes of which she had never felt before. How could he be so damn arrogant?!

"I don't." And at that moment, she meant it. She said it in such a way that Syaoran knew she was serious too. "What I felt for you was lust, at the most. And it won't happen again."

Syaoran was speechless. His gaze dropped to the floor and he just froze. The two of them stood together for a long time, neither one saying anything, neither one moving. Finally, Syaoran raised his head and looked Sakura directly in the eyes.

"_I_ love you."

He turned and started walking away, leaving Sakura feeling like she'd just been sucker punched in the stomach. He was about ten feet away when he looked back at her and added over his shoulder. "And I know you really love me too. That's why it's not over." And he left.

Sakura didn't move for a long time. She just stared mindlessly at the last place he'd been, refusing to let herself think about what had just happened.

At last the feeling returned to her feet and she spun on her heels, toward her original destination. The bathroom wasn't crowded but a few women were loitering around. Sakura went over to an empty sink and splashed cold water on her face. She stared at her reflection and watched as the rivulets of water ran down her face, across her cheeks, past her jaw and dribbled into the sink. They almost looked like tears. Strangely, she didn't feel like crying. Everything was just numb.

Sakura grabbed the neck of her shirt and patted her face dry. Syaoran's scent invaded her nostrils. She was still wearing his shirt.

Sakura moved into the nearest stall and peeled the clothes off, replacing them with her bathing suit. Somehow, the act made her feel a little better. With new resolve, Sakura kicked open the stall door and marched out of the bathroom and into the sunshine.

* * *

Sakura trotted along with her family as they walked in a group to the Pavilion for the dance. They were all talking, but she wasn't really listening. Her mind was somewhere far away.

The day had been awkward but it seemed that no one wanted to comment on it. Syaoran didn't act any different and she was trying not to, but the tense air was impossible to miss.

Sakura was most surprised at Touya's silence about the whole thing. She supposed even he must have had enough tact to know when to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he went out of his way to include Sakura and even convinced her to go on the rope swing. It was fun at first and she would have thanked him, if it wasn't for the rope burns on her hands and the fact that she landed in a belly flop in the water.

The sound of music reached her ears and Sakura snapped back to the present. Her fingers tightened slightly on the shirt Eriol let her borrow yesterday. She needed to return it.

Sakura had to smile at the music. It was country and sounded awfully hickish, but she didn't care. That was the fun of it all. The sun was almost gone and cast a pinkish glow to everything. The fireflies would be coming out soon. Sakura was suddenly very happy to be there. The only problem was the dark clouds that were hanging around ominously. They looked kind of far off though.

As soon as the group got to the dance floor, Fujitaka grabbed Nadesico's hand. "Care to dance?"

"Of course!" Nadesico replied and they were off.

Sakura watched her mother's smiling face as the older woman was spun around until her parents disappeared into the crowd. Well, at least someone was able to be so carefree.

Sakura was just about to take a seat on one of the lawn chairs that was set up when a hand was thrust in front of her face.

"Care to dance?"

Sakura looked up into her brother's smiling face before sticking her nose in the air. "Not particularly."

"Oh don't be like that," Touya said and took the shirt from her hands and shoved it to Syaoran's chest. She barely had time to open her mouth in protest before her feet left the ground and she was tossed over her brother's shoulder. Touya's fingers assaulted her ticklish sides so she was kicking, laughing, and screaming the whole way to the dance floor. They got quite a few amused stares.

As Touya set Sakura down the song ended and a jitter bug began. Sakura tried not to smile. Touya caught her hands with his and started dancing. Oh, it was a horrible sight to be seen. Their height difference made some of the moves extremely difficult, but what they lacked in skill they made up for in enthusiasm.

A very large smile split across Sakura's face.

Her brother was looking a fool, but this was his own way of trying to cheer her up about something he didn't know about. Sakura squealed like a little girl when he picked her up and spun them around for the finale.

"Keep going?" Touya asked as the next song started up.

"Absolutely!" Sakura replied.

Sakura allowed herself to be swept along with the pace of the next three songs. The sun was completely set and the dance lights came on. Her mind finally felt clear and she couldn't help smiling the whole time. They bumped into her parents a few times, and Sakura stuck her tongue out at her mother. Her mother laughingly returned the gesture.

At one point, Sakura caught sight of a very beautiful girl with long brown hair. The girl was even more hyper than Sakura and seemed to be changing dancing partners frequently. She looked familiar and it took Sakura a while to figure out that she was Eriol's sister, Nakuru. That must have meant that Eriol was there too.

"I think I need a break," Sakura said to Touya and he nodded.

"Me too. You're wearing me out," he laughed. "Do you want something to drink?"

"No," Sakura answered. "Not yet. There's something I need to take care of. Okay?"

Touya nodded and walked towards the drink stand.

Sakura returned to where Yukito and Syaoran were sitting and chatting. Sakura walked up to the two boys and extended her hand towards Syaoran. Syaoran raised his eyebrows at her, amused.

"Oh, Sakura, I don't know what to say."

It took Sakura a second to realize that he thought she was asking for a dance. She rolled her eyes. "Right. And while you're dreaming, how about you give me back that shirt?"

Syaoran looked down at the shirt in his lap and had the decency to look a bit sheepish. The look was gone as soon as it was there. "I don't know that I should…"

"Thank you!" Sakura exclaimed and snatched it off his lap. "I'll be back," she said over her shoulder to Yukito and walked away.

Sakura felt a smidgen of guilt at being so cold, but it was for the best. She wandered through the crowd, on the lookout for Eriol. It took her a while, and she wasn't sure if he was the right person at first until she caught his eye and he waved. He was wearing glasses now that strangely made him more appealing. She'd always had a thing for guys with glasses.

"Hi!" Sakura said, approaching where he was sitting. "I almost didn't recognize you."

Eriol chuckled.

"These, right?" He asked, pointing to his spectacles. Sakura nodded. "Yea, I didn't want to lose them in the river, even if it meant going blind. How are you?"

Sakura hesitated. She didn't really feel like she could just say 'fine'. Eriol noticed her pause and raised his eyebrows. "It's been an interesting trip to say the least," Sakura finally managed to say.

"How so?"

"My tent flooded," Sakura said and laughed. Eriol joined her.

"Yes, I bet that certainly made things _interesting_."

"I thought I would return this to you," Sakura said and held out his shirt before that part of the conversation could continue.

"Thank you," Eriol said, taking the proffered shirt. He let his hands linger over hers for longer than necessary and caught her eye. Sakura was just about to look away when there was a clap of thunder and the heavens began to pour. People started shrieking and running for cover.

"Come on!" Eriol exclaimed and the two followed the crowd. Everyone was stuck huddling under the patio area. Sakura tried to catch sight of anyone in her family, but it was to no avail.

"I wonder how long this is going to last," Eriol said, to no one in particular.

"Who knows? So much for dancing," Sakura muttered and looked down at her clothes. They were completely soaked. After taking all day to dry, that was the real irony. Sakura sighed when she remembered all of her clothes were still hanging up outside. She really had no luck whatsoever.

Just as Sakura was beginning to have dark thoughts about the weather, she noticed Eriol's sister run out onto the middle of the dance floor. Nakuru spread her arms out wide and started spinning around in circles. Sakura had to smile at her antics. That girl really was a free spirit.

A grin broke out on Sakura's face that froze when she saw Nakuru looking at her. Nakuru bounded up and grabbed both of Sakura's hands, shocking the younger girl.

"Dance with me!" Nakuru exclaimed and bore her wide brown eyes into Sakura's green ones.

Sakura was all set to decline, but reconsidered. She was already wet, what could it hurt? "Alright!" she replied, and was rewarded by Nakuru's squeal of joy.

The two ran out onto the dance floor, splashing water as they went. Nakuru took the male's lead since she was the taller one and the two went to town. It was a bit nerve wracking to know that everyone was watching them, but Sakura pushed that to the side of her mind. This was about enjoying herself! The pair of them spun around, laughing and giggling the whole time. By the time the song ended, Sakura was pretty sure her face was going to stick like that.

A couple more people had joined them by that time, but most of the people were still taking cover.

"Go and drag somebody out here," Nakuru instructed and went to do the same.

Sakura's eyes scanned the crowd, looking for her prey. She was planning on getting Yukito to dance with her since she was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to say no, but changed her mind when she saw Eriol leaning against the wall; he was smirking at her and looking entirely too dry.

Sakura came to a stop in front of him and put her hands on her hips. "Dance with me!" She surprised herself with her own daring, but she figured since it worked for Nakuru…

Eriol shrugged his shoulders pretended to be exasperated, "I was afraid of that." Nevertheless Eriol stood up straight, tucked the shirt Sakura returned to him in the waistband of his pants, and placed his glasses on the collar of his shirt. "Shall we go?" he asked and took her hand in his warm one.

The area was more crowded by the time they made it back. Sakura had to smile when she noticed Nakuru dancing with Yukito. Apparently, she had been able to find someone who wouldn't say no.

Sakura and Eriol were just about to dance when the song changed from a medium paced two-step to a slow song. Sakura was a bit embarrassed – she hadn't planned on that. Eriol took it all in stride and placed her hands on his shoulders before grabbing her waist and pulling her forward. They were close, but not enough to make Sakura feel like he was taking advantage of the situation. His hands stayed in place, not dipping down any lower. That was something Syaoran would probably do. Sakura snorted at the thought.

"Dust in the wind," Eriol sang softly, taking Sakura by surprise. It wasn't that he sounded great or anything, but his voice was oddly comforting. She relaxed in his hold and moved a little closer. She sang with him, their voices blending together and getting lost in the noise of the other dancers.

The rain continued to fall, but Sakura wouldn't have noticed if she didn't have to blink it out of her eyes occasionally. She was in her own little world and it was nice.

Sakura was sad when the song ended. She thought Eriol was about to leave her but he only grabbed her left hand with his right and went right into the two-step that followed. She couldn't remember the last time she had enjoyed dancing so much.

As the night wore on, Sakura continued to dance with Eriol. She caught glimpses of her family occasionally and waved. It seemed like they were switching partners around a lot. First she saw Touya with Nakuru and Nadesico with Syaoran, then Nakuru with Fujitaka and her mother with Yukito. It was all pretty amusing. She was half expecting to see Touya and Syaoran dancing together. That really would have made the night complete.

The rain stopped and they still kept dancing. Sakura could have stayed that way forever if it wasn't for the pain in her feet.

"I think I need to take a break," she finally said in between songs.

"Oh, thank God!" Eriol laughed. "I was beginning to think you were inhuman. Come on; let's go get something to drink."

Once they had refreshments, they just had to find somewhere to sit. The main areas were all crowded, so they ended up wandering away from the dance floor to one of the paths through the trees. There they were able to find and empty bench. Sakura collapsed onto it gratefully and took a sip of her drink.

"That's better!" she said, referring to being off her feet.

"That's for sure," Eriol agreed, taking a seat next to her.

They two of them sat in amiable silence, just admiring the scenery. Everything was just so green and the water left over from the rain made it all glisten. The fireflies were even starting to come out again.

"Wow." Sakura sighed contentedly and tried to grab a firefly from the air. She missed.

"Sakura?"

"Hm?" Sakura turned her attention back to Eriol. He had his glasses back on.

"I was wondering if we could go out together sometime when we are back in town." He looked in her eyes as he asked the question.

"Like… on a date?" Sakura asked, wanting to be sure.

"Yes," Eriol replied, a hint of a smile about his lips.

"Oh, I dunno, I-" Sakura stopped herself. What was stopping her from saying yes? It wasn't like she was dating Syaoran or anything. And, really, this could only work to her advantage. If Syaoran saw that she was interested in someone else, maybe he would back off. And she WAS genuinely interested in Eriol. He seemed nice, and she liked being around him.

"Yes," she said firmly. "I'd like that."

Eriol asked for her number after that and she gave him the number from her cell. She hardly ever used it, but it would be pretty awkward for Eriol if any of the males in her family answered the landline – especially Touya or Syaoran. She would just have to make it a point to actually turn her cell phone on and carry it around. She probably should have been doing that anyways.

Eriol took a permanent marker out of his pocket and wrote her number on his hand. Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. "That's pretty convenient."

"What?" Eriol asked innocently. "Don't you always carry a permanent marker around with you, everywhere you go?"

"Eh, that's a negative."

"So you caught me." Eriol shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "I may have been planning on asking you out since we met on the river." Somehow, that only made him more endearing.

"Sakura?"

Sakura started guiltily at the sound of her name being called. Surely her luck couldn't be that bad… She twisted around on the bench and saw Syaoran behind her. She studied his face to see if she could figure out how much he heard, but it was impossible. His face was the same as usual.

"What?"

"We're about to leave," he said to Sakura and then turned to Eriol. "I think your sister is looking for you too. She was running around and yelling your name."

"Oh, okay. I guess I better hurry then," Eriol said and leapt to his feet. He pulled Sakura up with him. "I had fun tonight. I'll call you when I get back in town."

"Alright," Sakura answered, feeling a bit odd.

Eriol bid his farewells and went back to the dancing area, leaving Sakura and Syaoran standing alone.

"I bet the others are going to be looking for us, so I guess we should get going." Sakura attempted to break the awkward silence.

"So, you're going to go out with him?" Leave it to Syaoran to cut right to the point.

"Yes, is there a problem?" Sakura challenged.

"No, no problem," Syaoran said, shaking his head. "You really are something else, you know that?"

"Syaoran, I'm going to date Eriol. Whatever happened between me and you is OVER." She said it firmly enough to believe it.

The words had barely left her mouth when Syaoran reached out and pulled her to him. It was so quick she didn't have time to react. He embraced her tightly, his arms wrapped over her own. Sakura didn't know how to react for a long time. His clothes were wet like hers, but his skin was warm. He smelled exactly the way she remembered. Her forearms moved on their own, almost about to hug him back before she changed her mind and used them to push him away.

"I'll say it again," Syaoran said, encouraged by her initial hesitance to push him away. "It's not over."

"It IS over."

"You think dating someone else makes a difference? People break up all the time." Syaoran smiled slightly. "It's not over until you're married. And even then…"

Sakura really had no idea how to reply to that. And he said SHE was 'something else'. There really was nothing she COULD say to that. She couldn't control him. The only person she had power over was herself. So she said nothing. The two went back to the group in silence.

* * *

"ARGH! I don't know how much more I can take of this _music_!" Sakura cried and banged her head against the car window repeatedly. She REALLY missed her iPod.

They were finally on their way home and really – praise the Lord! The couple of days they spent camping had been so eventful for Sakura, it felt like a year had gone by. Knowing how much could change in a short amount of time definitely made her apprehensive for the remainder of the summer. That was something she wasn't looking forward to.

"Well, why don't I turn it off and we can have a conversation?" Nadesico asked, reaching for the dial.

"Maybe if I could get a word in edgewise," Sakura muttered. "You monopolize the conversation!"

"Well, is it my problem that you aren't more assertive?" Nadesico countered.

"I'll show you assertive!"

"Here," Syaoran interrupted and handed her the right earplug to his headphones. "We can share."

Sakura wasn't so sure that was a good idea, but changed her mind when her mother started in on one of her boring stories.

"Fine," she said, resigned. "Thank you."

Sakura and Syaoran had been sitting as far apart as possible but they had to move closer together to share the headphones. She didn't want to encourage his bad behavior, but she also didn't want things to end up bad between them. They might not have been able to be together as a couple, but that didn't change the fact that Sakura cared about him. Some sacrifices just had to be made, Sakura thought as she shoved the small device in her ear and relaxed in her seat.

Unknown to them, they would both fall asleep and end up leaning against each other - Sakura's head on Syaoran's shoulder and Syaoran's head on top of Sakura's. This would come as a surprise to them when they awoke upon arriving home and even more so when they got the pictures developed from Nadesico's camera.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Fourth of July party?" Sakura asked, her mouth full of spaghetti. Her mother gave her a disparaging look.

"Yes, I thought it might be nice," Nadesico said and then followed with, "Pass the garlic bread."

Touya passed his mother the basket full of bread, his eyebrows furrowed. "How big of a party are we talking about?" He had never been all that social, so parties were not his favorite.

"Nothing huge. Just the family and a few friends," Nadesico explained and sent Sakura a sly look. "I thought Sakura could invite her new boyfriend so we could all meet him."

"Mom." Sakura sank a little in her seat, becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this conversation. "He's not really my boyfriend. We've only gone on a few dates."

"Whatever you say."

"You're inviting Yukito, right?" Sakura asked Touya in a desperate attempt at changing the subject.

"Of course," Syaoran interrupted anything Touya might have been about to say. "You're inviting YOUR boyfriend, why shouldn't he?"

So much for making things less uncomfortable. It was obvious to everyone in the family that Syaoran had been in a funky mood lately and Sakura hoped she was the only one who noticed it coincided with her second successful date with Eriol. Apparently, he wasn't exactly thrilled that things were going so well. That left everyone else to deal with the backlash of Syaoran's temper.

Touya's eyes narrowed dangerously. He didn't appreciate the insinuation on his sexual preferences. "Oh? And who are you bringing? The last time I checked, you didn't have any friends."

Syaoran's mouth puckered. "I don't know what you mean. I'm plenty popular."

"And I can fly."

"HEY!" Sakura interjected loudly with all the subtly of a sledge hammer. Four sets of eyes turned towards her expectantly. It was a bit unnerving. "I, uh… does anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?" Nadesico asked, setting down her fork and perking up as if she might actually hear something.

"I think I hear my phone vibrating in my room!" Sakura said and jumped to her feet. Touya, Nadesico, and Fujitaka collectively rolled their eyes but Syaoran kept his gaze on Sakura.

"Are you sure it's your phone and not something ELSE vibrating?" He asked pointedly. Sakura tilted her head to the side slightly, not quite understanding what he was getting at.

"Ugh, I'm gonna be sick," Touya said and pushed his plate away from him.

"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed, comprehension dawning. "No, no, it's couldn't be THAT! Buzz's batteries went out last night so it's impossible!"

At this point Fujitaka stopped eating as well and pushed his plate aside.

"Buzz?" Syaoran asked tentatively.

"Yes, I named it! Don't you think it's cute?" Sakura pushed her chair under the table. She was only kidding of course, but it was worth it to see the look on Syaoran's face. Not that she wasn't curious about that sort of thing… Anyways! Back to the subject at hand! "So whoever goes to the store next needs to pick me up some C batteries!"

Nadesico bust out laughing as Sakura walked away, much to the younger girl's amusement. "That's my girl!" she said.

Sakura retreated to the safety of her room and shut the door. Finally some peace and quiet! She collapsed on her bed with a contented sigh. Sometimes the best company was NO company. Sadly, that was becoming the case when it came to being with her family – mainly because of Syaoran. It was times like these that she really wished she had someone she could confide in.

Her eyes slid over to her little red phone of their own accord. Without even really thinking about it she sat up and snatched it off of her nightstand. She located the number of the person she wanted to talk to and hit the call button.

"Hello?" A girl's voice answered after a few rings.

"Hey Tomoyo!"

"Sakura! I almost didn't recognize the number on my phone." There was a bit of shuffling over the line as Tomoyo got situated. "I see you are actually using your cell phone for a change."

"Yea." Sakura leaned back against the wall and pulled a pillow on her lap. "I figured it would be a bit awkward for Eriol to call my house, so I'm trying to get into the habit of using my cell."

"That's right! I forgot about that. How's it going with him?" Tomoyo asked expectantly.

"Pretty good," Sakura answered truthfully. "We've only been out a few times, but he's a great guy and a lot of fun to be with." It had actually been surprising for Sakura how well the dates went. The easy flowing conversations between them were blissfully absent of the usual bickering that occurred whenever Sakura and Syaoran conversed. Some people would call it banter - Sakura called it annoying.

There was a huge part of Sakura that longed to just get everything out in the open and tell her oldest and best friend the truth. Keeping something so important about her life an absolute secret was suffocating. She needed to talk to SOMEONE about it! Really, would Tomoyo care all that much?

Tomoyo sighed loudly. "Now that you have someone, I REALLY need a boyfriend… Hey!" Tomoyo's voice perked up considerably. "That reminds me! When are you going to set me up with Syaoran?"

"Huh?" Sakura asked stupidly. She had just been gearing up to let loose all of her secrets so the swing in conversation threw her for a loop.

"Syaoran! You said you would help me out with him! Remember?"

"Oh yea, I…" Sakura took a breath of air to settle her nerves. "About him, there was something I wanted to tell you."

"Oh no you don't!" Tomoyo said sharply. "Sakura Kinomoto, you are not weaseling out of this. You promised!"

"I did?" Somehow, Sakura wasn't so sure about that.

"Sakura… please?" Tomoyo asked, her voice a lot less sharp all of a sudden. She sounded so much like the old Tomoyo that Sakura could feel herself wavering.

"Well, I guess." This actually could work to her advantage. If Syaoran was busy with Tomoyo, he wouldn't have time to bother Sakura. He was probably going to be furious with her for what she was about to do, but that was just tough. It was time he moved on anyways. "My family is having a Fourth of July party so you could talk to him then."

"Oh thank you, Sakura!" Tomoyo was about to say more, but was cut off by someone on her end of the line. She said something back and then started talking to Sakura again. "Hey, that was my mom. Dinner's ready, so I got to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow or something okay?"

"Okay. Bye!" Sakura answered and was a bit shocked to realize she was feeling relieved. Since when did saying goodbye to her best friend make her relieved?

"Bye!"

The line went dead and Sakura flipped her phone shut. It was a bit depressing how far apart they had grown. Only a couple years ago she wouldn't have thought twice about spilling her deepest secrets like they were pleasantries. Sadly, she hadn't even gotten around to telling Tomoyo about the problem with her grandfather and mother.

She still felt like talking. Unfortunately, the only other person she could call was Eriol. Not that it was a bad thing, but she was a bit nervous to call him. So far he had been the only one to initiate their get-togethers so it felt like a big step. She really just needed to grow some balls.

Before she had time to change her mind, she opened her phone and located his number. He answered after the second ring.

"Sakura! How are you?"

"I'm doing fine. You?"

"Great! So, what's up?" Eriol sounded as chipper as ever. It was nice.

"I – I just felt like talking." It was a bit hard for her to say something like that. In fact, it was almost painful.

"Hm, is that so?" He sounded contemplative. "Well, you know it's always a pleasure. Is there something in particular on your mind?"

"Actually…" She really needed to get at least part of the weight off her chest. "I do, but it's a bit depressing. I just don't really know who else to talk to."

Eriol chuckled slightly. "It's alright. I don't mind. Lay it on me."

It felt strange for Sakura to be telling such a big family secret to someone she barely knew, but it was therapeutic at the same time. Eriol was someone who had an objective third party point of view and could tell her his unbiased opinion. The whole thing about her grandfather disowning them and her mother's possible depression had been weighing heavily on her mind. She had thought about talking to Touya about it, but she wasn't sure how much he knew about everything. It was nice to share the burden with someone else. And Eriol was a good listener, making small noises and asking questions to show that he was listening, but not interrupting her either.

The downside to it all was that she couldn't tell him EVERYTHING - at least not the things pertaining to Syaoran. That could make things awkward. Unfortunately for Sakura, Syaoran was a big part of her problems. Still, it was better than nothing.

"Wow," Eriol said when she finished the long part of it all. "Sounds like your mom is dealing with a lot right now."

"Yea," Sakura said sadly and stretched her feet out in front of her. She wiggled her toes and noticed that some of the polish was chipped. Hmm, she would need to redo them soon.

"But she got through things once, right?"

"Yes, thank goodness."

"Well, that means she must be a strong person. And she has a great family to help her through it. Your grandfather really doesn't know what he's missing."

Sakura stopped staring at her toes and smiled. He really was a nice guy. "Thanks Eriol."

"You're welcome. I'm always available to talk if you need me."

She actually felt a little better now that she had talked about part of her problems. She was suddenly struck with courage. "Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"I'm supposed to play tennis with my doubles partner." Sakura had just started deflating when he finished by saying. "But why don't you join us?"

"Are you sure? Do you think your partner would mind? I don't want to intrude." Him just inviting her made her feel better, she was ashamed to admit.

"No, no, I'm sure Meiling won't mind. She hates singles anyways."

"Meiling?"

"Yea, she's my mixed doubles partner for the school team. She used to play singles though. We like to play every now and then in the summer to stay in practice."

"Oh, okay," Sakura said. The name sounded a bit familiar – they had probably played against each other at some point. If only she could put a face to the name.

"But if we're going to play doubles, we need a fourth player." Eriol's voice trailed off. "How about Syaoran?"

"Huh?" Sakura asked, dumfounded for a second time in less than an hour.

"You know, your cousin?"

"Yea, um." Sakura was desperately scrambling for some sort of excuse. The last thing she wanted to do was spend more time with Syaoran. "Tennis isn't really his thing. He's a decent player, but I don't know if he would be up to it."

"You never know – he's very competitive with me."

"Okay." Why did her brain fail her at times like this? Oh! "He's not home right now so I'll ask him when he-"

Sakura's door suddenly swung open, making her practically jump out of her skin. "Sakura, your mom wanted me to tell you that if you want a piece of cake, you better get down there soon." Syaoran said loudly. There was no way Eriol missed it.

Hadn't he ever heard of knocking?

"And here he is! He must have just gotten home." Syaoran raised his eyebrows at her, amused. "What good timing. Um, Syaoran?"

"Yeeees?" Syaoran asked, dragging the one syllable out. He leaned against her door frame and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Do you want to play tennis with me and Eriol tomorrow?" Sakura shook her head and glared at him the whole time she asked the question. That was her way of subtly hinting that he should decline.

But then again, since when did he ever listen to her?

"I would love to!" Syaoran answered just as loud as when he barged into her room. She really was going to kill him someday.

"Great."

They made plans to meet at some nearby courts the following day and said their goodbyes. When Sakura set her phone down she got a good look at Syaoran's smug face and was sorely tempted to chuck her pillow at it.

"I hate you," she said.

"Keep telling yourself that."

* * *

Sakura popped the top on her soda can and took a long gulp. Ah, there really was no replacement for a large dose of caffeine first thing in the morning! Especially since she hadn't slept very well that night…

Usually she had no problem getting a good night's rest but lately it seemed like her brain just refused to shut off. It was frustrating.

"Oh, you're up."

Sakura spun around at her mother's voice and was a bit startled by Nadesico's appearance. Nadesico had a distinctly disheveled look and her eyes were bleary and red. It kind of looked like she had been crying, but not quite.

"I'ma 'boutta go ta bed."

"Okay." Sakura furrowed her eyebrows together. Was her mother… slurring?

When Nadesico moved past Sakura to the fridge her walk was very slightly unsteady. She rummaged around in what was supposed to be the vegetable crisper and pulled out a Reese's peanut butter cup.

"Night," she said and shut the fridge door with a thud. Sakura got a whiff of her breath as she said it and recognized the unmistakable stench of alcohol.

For a second Sakura wasn't sure she would be able to reply. She glanced at the clock and noticed it was only 8 o'clock in the morning. It wasn't like her mother had just woken up, since she worked all night, but still…

"Goodnight," Sakura forced out of her mouth, a bit strangled.

Sakura watched her mother as she walked away and felt her throat tighten. Nadesico disappeared from view and Sakura inhaled deeply to calm herself down. It didn't really mean anything. She had seen her mother drunk before so it wasn't entirely new. Of course, those times hadn't been in the morning… no! It was probably just because her mother had a hard night at work. She couldn't help the fact that her shift ended early in the morning. It didn't mean anything.

Her nerves still a bit frazzled, Sakura went on with her morning rituals and forced her mind on other things.

* * *

"I don't see why we couldn't take my car," Sakura grumbled and huffily rested her chin on her hand.

"Because I have let you drive me somewhere once and it will never happen again," Syaoran replied, his eyes still on the road. Such a good boy.

"That's what you think," Sakura murmured so quietly it was barely audible.

"What was that?"

"Your truck stinks."

Syaoran took a few tentative sniffs of the air. "No it doesn't."

"Oh?" Sakura smirked. "It must be you then."

Syaoran rolled his eyes and changed the subject. "So who did you say we're playing with besides Eriol?"

"Eriol's mixed doubles partner from high school," Sakura answered.

Syaoran tore his eyes away from his driving for the first time and looked at her, surprised. The moment was over almost as quickly as it started so Sakura didn't have enough time to read his look well.

"Are you talking about Meiling?" he asked, his eyes back on the road.

"Yea," Sakura said suspiciously. "Do you know her?"

"Not very well." Syaoran's eyes snuck a glance at her again. Now Sakura was positive he was hiding something.

"Syaoran Li," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I don't know what you mean."

Sakura shoved her index finger into Syaoran's side viciously. "Yes you do."

"Ow!" Syaoran yelled and jerked away from her, taking the wheel with him a bit. He quickly righted it. "Was that necessary?"

"Yes," Sakura said bluntly. "So you better start talking before I do it again."

"Sakura, I don't – OW!" Syaoran glared at her and rubbed his side. "Fine, but I want you to know that what I'm about to say could be completely wrong. That's why I didn't want to even say it."

"What do you mean?" Now her curiosity was peaked more than ever.

"It's just… things I've heard about her."

"Such as?"

"It's just…" Syaoran sighed and gave in. "I heard that she's had a THING for Eriol for several years now."

"You mean-"

"Yea. Supposedly, she even confessed to him a couple years back and he rejected her. She's dated other people since then but people think she didn't really get over him."

Sakura bit her bottom lip softly. "Do YOU think it's true?"

"I dunno." Syaoran looked distinctly uncomfortable now. "But I wouldn't have even said anything if I didn't think there might be some truth to it."

Sakura started gnawing on her lip. If the whole thing was true, why were they partners now? Could Meiling still be holding onto some feelings for Eriol? She wasn't really sure how she felt about that.

Syaoran gave Sakura a sideways look and opened his mouth to say something. It seemed he thought better of it because he closed his mouth but then he opened it again. "Does it really even matter if it's the truth?"

Sakura looked at Syaoran, shocked. "Huh?" she said articulately.

"Well, if she does like him that way, Eriol is probably aware of that. They aren't dating and I'm pretty sure they never have. So, does it matter?"

"No," Sakura answered. "It doesn't."

"That's what I thought."

Sakura was surprised that he actually said something to make her feel better about it since he was against her dating Eriol. He really was a strange boy.

The irony of the situation didn't escape her attention, but that didn't stop her from squashing it unceremoniously. Meiling's possible feelings for Eriol didn't affect her like Tomoyo's for Syaoran because Meiling wasn't her best friend. And Tomoyo was.

There was only one other car in the parking lot when they got to the tennis courts and it belonged to Eriol. Eriol was already out and hitting a ball against the backboard but he stopped and waved when he noticed them.

Syaoran sighed as he opened the driver's door and Sakura sent him a warning glare. "Be nice."

"Yes, mom."

"Hey!" Sakura said as she approached Eriol. He smiled at her and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger. Sakura didn't miss the constipated looking smirk on Syaoran's face as he did it either.

"Where's Meiling?" Syaoran asked before Sakura could say anything to him.

"Not here," Eriol answered, his genial smile never leaving his face. Sakura could practically see Syaoran's feathers getting ruffled.

"Thank you, Dr. Bob," Syaoran said sarcastically.

"You're quite welcome."

Before Syaoran could reach over and strangle the life out of the glasses clad boy, a loud thumping noise caught all of their attention.

"Ah, speak of the devil," Eriol said as a white car pulled into the parking lot and moved towards the courts. The thudding got louder as it approached and Sakura realized that it was the bass to music. Hey! That was one of her favorite songs.

The car parked and the person inside started scrambling around to gather her stuff, hiding her face in the process. The door swung open and a long, muscled leg shot out to make sure it didn't swing shut.

"I'm not late, am I?" The girl asked as she climbed out of her car. She was juggling her keys, a water bottle, a racket, and her cellphone so she used her butt to close the car door.

"No," Eriol answered. "Would you care if you were?"

"For your sake?" The girl asked. "Not particularly. No. But I would feel bad if I made your friends wait." Her eyes slid over to Syaoran.

"Hi, Meiling," Syaoran said.

"I take that back. I would feel bad if I made your girlfriend wait." She jerked her head towards Sakura. "Hi, I'm Meiling."

She felt a little awkward at being referred to as Eriol's girlfriend, but she answered just the same. "I'm Sakura."

Sakura was fairly sure that she'd seen this girl before. Meiling was the kind of girl it was hard to forget, to put it frankly. She had long black hair that was tied back out of her face with a few loose hairs despite the bobby pins that were there to catch them. She was taller than Sakura and her legs seemed to go on forever. She had a nice figure and a striking face. In other words, she seemed like the whole package.

"We've met before, right?" Meiling asked.

"I think so. We must have played singles against each other at some point."

"I thought so!" Meiling exclaimed. "I never forget a pretty face!" And just like that, Sakura was in love.

* * *

Sakura was having a hard time determining whether there were any grounds to the rumors about Meiling or not. So far, the only interaction Meiling and Eriol had been insults and bickering.

"This isn't fair!" Sakura wailed. "My partner sucks!"

"Hey now!" Syaoran bit back. "Tennis is not my best sport, okay?"

"Obviously," Sakura grouched. "I would be better off playing by myself."

"They bicker a lot, don't they?" Meiling asked Eriol and took a swig from her water bottle. Something about what she said struck a chord with Sakura. It was true, they did argue a lot. They same way Eriol and Meiling did. That made her a bit uneasy.

"It's how we show our love for each other," Syaoran said and put his arm around Sakura's shoulders. Sakura snapped her teeth at him and Syaoran pulled away. "Bad dog!"

"I've got an idea," Meiling said suddenly, ignoring their bickering. "Why don't we switch up the partners? I'm getting tired of playing with Four-eyes anyways." Eriol looked offended.

"Girls against boys!" Sakura chirped. She was tired of almost getting hit by Meiling anyways. That girl had a vicious backhand. Meiling smiled and moved so she was standing next to Sakura.

"Oh good. I'm ready to start winning," Syaoran said, clearly trying to provoke them. It worked. The fixed grins that appeared on the two girls' faces were scarily identical.

"Let's mop the floor with them," Meiling whispered.

"My thoughts exactly."

* * *

"How do you like me now, bitch?" Meiling shouted and punched her fist in the air. "Suck on it!" A scowl seemed permanently etched on Eriol's face as he got off the floor.

"You're going to be picking ball fuzz out of your teeth for a week," Syaoran commented. He had remained on the baseline, safely away from the net and Meiling's attacks.

"Yea, he might find some TENNIS ball fuzz while he's at it too," Meiling commented and burst into hysterical laughter. Sakura couldn't help it – her mouth twitched.

"Traitor," Eriol grouched.

"Sakura's serve," Syaoran announced and tossed the ball to Sakura. It somehow managed to bounce off her racket and right into her face.

"Ow," Sakura muttered, amidst Syaoran's laughter. "Good thing my nose was there to protect my face."

"Are you okay?" Eriol asked, showing genuine concern.

"I'm fine. Let's just get this last game over with." Getting hit in the face always tended to make her grouchy.

"Who says it's the last game?" Syaoran asked.

"Yea," Eriol added. "We could make a comeback."

"Well, seeing as how you two have lost the last consecutive five games…" Sakura began.

"We're not exactly shaking in our boots," Meiling finished. The two girls grinned conspiratorially at each other.

"We'll see."

* * *

"Well, that's that," Meiling said, putting the tennis balls back in their can. The last game had been slightly more challenging than the previous five, but the girls still emerged victorious. "It's a shame we didn't put any money on it."

"I know," Sakura agreed. "I could always use the extra cash."

"Oh, go take a long walk off a short pier," Syaoran grumbled under his breath. Somebody was a sore loser.

"Ladies first," Sakura replied, flashing him her teeth.

"That was fun," Eriol said and tried to work the kinks out of his shoulders. "Why don't we all go get something to eat now?"

Meiling sighed, truly pained. "Sorry. I would love to but I have to get ready for work."

"Where do you work?" Sakura asked, curious.

"I'm a manager at Little Cheezers." Meiling shuddered. "The pizza place from hell."

"What's wrong with it?" That was actually Sakura's favorite pizza place. She sincerely hoped she wasn't about to hear something that would forever turn her off to the place.

"I work with idiots," Meiling answered bluntly. The way she said it implied 'don't even get me started'.

"Oh, I see…"

"But we should definitely all get together sometime besides for just tennis." Meiling pushed some stray hairs out of her eyes.

"Absolutely!" Sakura agreed. "In fact, my family is having a Fourth of July party. Why don't you come?"

Meiling seemed a bit taken aback by the invitation but recovered quickly. "Sure! I'll come if I can get that day off. Let me give you my number."

The girls exchanged phone numbers and then Meiling was on her way, her car thumping as she drove off.

Meiling certainly seemed like an interesting person. She came off as being nice, but there was really no telling. It's not like they sat down together and had a heart to heart. Sakura was also unsure about Meling's relationship with Eriol. They seemed fairly normal around each other, but Sakura was well aware that could be deceiving as well. Just look at her and Syaoran. As far as she knew, no one had any clue about what had gone on between them. And here they were, acting like perfectly normal cousins.

"So, are you two hungry?" Eriol asked.

"I am. What about you, Syaoran?" Sakura's eyes slid over to Syaoran. She really wanted to spend some time alone with Eriol, but she seriously doubted Syaoran would allow that to happen. As she suspected, he met her stare with raised eyebrows. Neither of them wanted to break eye contact, turning it into a staring contest of sorts.

Syaoran finally looked away at length and sighed. "No. I have some things I need to take care of at home anyways, so why don't you two go ahead without me?"

Sakura's body relaxed as the tension left her. She really hadn't thought he would let that happen.

"That's too bad," Eriol said, managing to sound like he meant it.

"Sure. Anyways, Sakura, why don't you come with me and get your wallet out of my truck?"

"Okay."

"I'll just finish gathering the rest of the balls," Eriol commented and did just that.

Sakura didn't really want to get her wallet at this point. It meant she would be alone with Syaoran for a couple minutes and she had the sneaking suspicion that he had something he wanted to say to her.

That sneaking suspicion turned out to be correct.

"Look Sakura," Syaoran began as he unlocked and opened the driver's door. "I'm willing to let you be alone with him for one reason."

"And just what is that exactly?" Sakura asked.

"It won't last," Syaoran said simply as he reached over the seats and grabbed Sakura's wallet. Sakura remained silent. "What? No comment?"

"Syaoran, you know as well as I do that I definitely have a comment."

"Oh? And what is that?" Syaoran straightened up and stared at her, the wallet in hand. Sakura reached for it, but he jerked it out of her reach. "No. Not until you answer me."

"Fine." Sakura said, nonplussed. "But remember, you asked."

Syaoran yawned as if to indicate he was getting bored with this conversation and Sakura decided to tell him exactly what she thought.

"You're scared."

Syaoran actually laughed. "And how do you figure that one?" Sakura wasn't affected.

"The fact that we've had this conversation before; many times in fact. It's becoming the same song, second verse. You keep saying the same thing over and over as if that might actually make it true. But Syaoran…" At this point Sakura snatched her wallet out of his hands and turned to walk away. As she did, she said one more thing over her shoulder. "If you really thought it were true, you wouldn't feel the need to keep verbalizing it."

* * *

"Ah, belly full of cheeseburger." Sakura sighed contentedly and rubbed her stomach. "You really know how to show a girl a good time."

"I try." Eriol glanced at her and then back at the street. "So, which one is your house?"

"The one on the end," Sakura pointed, squinting. The sun was almost set and the light was trying to blind her. A simple lunch had turned into a long talk and then a movie, followed by a long talk over dinner. He had somehow managed to talk her into all of that despite the fact that they were both still in their tennis clothes. Really, Sakura felt so at ease when she was with him. It was nice.

"This will be the first time I drop you off at your house," Eriol said suddenly. "Because you usually take your own car and meet me at our dates."

"Yea," Sakura chuckled slightly. "I thought I would save you the pain of meeting my brother."

"Overprotective?" Eriol asked, seeming amused.

"Just a little bit." That was an understatement.

"Well, if we're going to keep seeing each other, it's something that I'm going to have to face sooner or later, right?" Eriol pulled up to the curb and put the car in park.

"That's true," Sakura said, averting her eyes. She was really nervous all of a sudden. "But I guess you'll meet him at the Fourth of July party."

"Oh? So does that mean I'm invited?"

Sakura snapped around to look at him, surprised. "I thought I already invited you!"

"No." Eriol put on a sad face. "You invited Meiling. I must admit, I was feeling a bit left out."

"Oh! I'm sorry." Sakura was mentally cursing her stupidity. "I meant to invite you too. I just… forgot."

"Ouch."

"I don't mean it like that! Of course I really want you to be there!" Sakura was getting flustered. She really hated it when her brain failed her. It was about time to get a new one.

"That's good then." Eriol's voice was deep and low, almost a whisper. It was then that Sakura noticed how close they were. Eriol seemed to have noticed as well. "Sakura?"

It took Sakura a second to realize that he was asking her permission. She had no idea what to say. It was so awkward! Thankfully, her body was still functioning when her brain wasn't because her head inclined slightly. That seemed to be all the encouragement Eriol needed.

His hand reached forward, brushing over her cheek and snaking around her neck. He pulled her forward gently until their lips met. Sakura's heart thudded almost painfully in her chest. Eriol's kiss was sweet and slow, very different from the few kisses Sakura had shared with Syaoran. His lips weren't as full as Syaoran's either, so she could definitely tell a difference. That didn't make it a bad kiss, by any means. She was enjoying it thoroughly and the thought exhilarated her. She really could feel that way for someone besides Syaoran.

Eriol pulled away and placed one more butterfly kiss on the corner of her mouth. "See you tomorrow?" he asked.

Sakura couldn't contain the goofy grin that split across her face. "Absolutely."

* * *

Sakura hummed a jaunty little tune despite the fact that she was battling with the lock to the front door. Keys had never been her strong suit so she was almost tempted to ring the doorbell, but then she would be forced to endure the taunting of whoever opened it for her.

She finally got the stupid thing unlocked and used her hip to help her open the door since it was prone to sticking. When she looked up, her humming abruptly stopped.

Syaoran stood in the entryway, an unreadable expression on his face. Sakura started to say something to break the awkward silence but thought better of it. His face wasn't exactly unreadable, it was almost stony. He hadn't looked at her like that in a long time.

Without a word, Syaoran turned his back to her and walked away.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"What crawled up his butt and died?" Touya asked in Syaoran's wake. That was the burning question on everyone's mind. It seemed like pretty much every time Sakura entered a room these days, he would leave in a huff. This time he left a pile of unfinished party decorations on the patio floor.

Sakura simply shrugged her shoulders. She was in no mood to make lame excuses to her brother. Touya must have sensed that because he didn't say anything else.

Instead of messing Syaoran's pile up like her hands were itching to do, Sakura set her own pile of decorations on the table and started setting them up. Ever since he had turned his back to her after her first kiss with Eriol she had vowed to be more mature than him. That was all good in theory, but each day he made it increasingly difficult.

It wasn't that he was exactly doing anything; it was more what he wasn't doing. He wouldn't talk to her unless absolutely necessary, nor would he look at her. The tension was so high in their house her father even seemed to notice it. In an effort to get away from it all, Sakura had been spending just about every day at Eriol's house.

She would get up early every morning, get dressed, get fast food for breakfast, and then head to her boyfriend's house. Because of this she hadn't seen much of her mother either and was unsure whether or not Nadesico was still getting drunk in the morning. She wasn't sure if she really even wanted to know.

Her family was concerned that she was never home, but she told them she just didn't feel like spending her whole summer cooped up. When they asked where she went all the time, she told them she was with Tomoyo, Meiling, and Eriol. It wasn't a flat out lie, but she was stretching the truth a little bit. She had been to see Tomoyo a couple of times and played tennis against Meiling once, but that was it. She may or may not have led her parents to believe that she was with the girls more than Eriol.

Her home life may have been a mess but her relationship with Eriol was progressing smoothly. He seemed thrilled that they were spending so much time together, even if he remained in the dark as to the real reason why. They would go out on actual dates sometimes, but most of the time they just hung out at his house, watching television, playing games, or just talking.

Being at his house so often, Sakura had naturally met Eriol's parents. Eriol's father was a tall handsome man who didn't ever say much to Sakura. He was an accountant who worked during the day so she only saw him in the evenings anyways. Eriol's mother, Keiko, was an elementary school teacher so she had the summer off, save for a few summer school classes she taught in the morning. Keiko had the look of a woman who used to be attractive but had let herself go in recent years and it had all gone to her hips and thighs.

Sakura wasn't really too sure how she felt about Eriol's mother. She seemed nice enough, but every now and then she would say something that rubbed Sakura the wrong way. Sakura just chalked it up to her being oversensitive because of her problems with her family.

Eriol's sister Nakuru would emerge from her dark bedroom at about 1:00 in the afternoon, looking like death. She would usually lounge around for a while before getting dressed and meeting up with friends or going on dates.

Because his family was constantly coming and going, Eriol and Sakura were rarely left alone in the house together. However, when they were they wasted no time in practicing their make out techniques. Sakura had the feeling she had become an expert kisser. Still, Eriol never tried to push for more than kissing and a little bit of light groping. It was a relief, in a way.

"Are you ever going to tell me what's bugging you?" Touya asked.

Sakura briefly considered lying and saying that there was nothing wrong, but that thought went out the window quickly. "Maybe if I was on my death bed." Sakura caught her brother's eye and winked. "But probably not."

Touya shook his head at her and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'stubborn jackass' but she chose to ignore it.

She wasn't looking forward to this Fourth of July party one tiny little bit. She tried to get out of it numerous times but her mother was having none of it. According to her, it was a family event and Sakura was a part of that family whether she liked it or not. At the moment the feeling was 'or not'.

"I got sparklers!" Nadesico announced as she swung the door open holding a plastic bag. She had just returned from grocery shopping for party food and supplies.

"Shall I give you a cookie?" Sakura grumbled, feeling irritation prickle just at the sight of her mother. It wasn't something she wanted to feel, but it was there all the same. Everything about her mother was just bugging her lately.

"Still Mary Sunshine today, I see," Nadesico commented and flopped down on a lawn chair. Touya smiled slightly at her comment, probably secretly agreeing. Nadesico set the bag down on the table, messing up Sakura's pile of decorations in the process. Sakura's skin crawled. "Are you nervous about your boyfriend meeting your family today or something?"

"Hardly," Sakura scoffed. It was very doubtful that her family wouldn't like him as far as she was concerned. Eriol was an expert charmer, after all. "I just don't see the point of sparklers. It's not like there are any small children coming to this thing."

"Because it's a tradition – you have to have sparklers on the Fourth of July," Nadesico stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Whatever you say, mommy dearest," Sakura said, and made to leave. She didn't want to spend any more time around that woman than was absolutely necessary. Sakura kind of marveled at the intense emotion of dislike she was having for her mother. She knew it must be some sort of misdirected anger, but it certainly felt real enough.

"Hey, wait!" Nadesico said suddenly.

Sakura stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"I forgot to get citronella candles! Would you mind going to the grocery store for me?" Nadesico batted her eyes sweetly. "I just got back from the store, after all. I don't want to go back but I don't think our guests would appreciate getting eaten alive by bugs."

Sakura stared at her mother for a second and was about to reply when the door opened and Syaoran poked his head out.

"I'm going to run out and get some more ice. Did anyone need anything?" he asked, seemingly directing this question more towards Touya and Nadesico than to Sakura.

"Oh goody," Sakura said anyways, before Nadesico suggested that they go to the store together. "That means you can get the candles while you're at it."

She then proceeded to brush past him, hitting his shoulder hard enough to make him take a half step backwards. She thought about hiding out in her room until the party started, but dismissed it quickly. The last thing she needed was her mother bitching about how she never carried her own weight. Mind made up, she walked into the kitchen to help her father with the food preparations.

"Hey, Sweetie, how's it going?" Fujitaka said upon her entrance. He was unpacking the groceries Nadesico had just bought.

"It's going," Sakura answered, still feeling drained. All the repressed anger was really wearing her out. She needed some sort of release.

"Something wrong?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"No, not really. I'm just tired." Sakura lied.

"That's good." He paused as if unsure whether he should say what he was thinking. "You know, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"And what is that?" Sakura moved to the counter and starting pulling hotdog buns out of the bags.

"Have you noticed that Syaoran has been acting a little… off lately?"

"Dad," Sakura said and waited until her father was looking at her directly. "It's kinda hard to miss."

Fujitaka laughed at her bluntness. "Yea, I guess so. I just was wondering if he said anything to you about what was wrong with him."

"Of course not," Sakura said, trying to keep the venom out of her voice. "It's not like we're close or anything."

"True." Fujitaka still looked a bit troubled. He had his full focus on his daughter – his eyes seemed to blaze into her. "I have a theory about what's bothering him though."

"Oh?" Sakura was trying really hard not to sound too interested. Had her father actually figured out what was going on with her and Syaoran? She kept most of her attention on the task of unloading the groceries. Her pulse was pounding in her veins.

"Well, his mother and step-father are coming tonight," Fujitaka said and Sakura let the tension flow out of her bones. Her secret was still safe.

"And?"

"You remember that they are having problems, right?" Her dad waited until she nodded to continue. "I realized that he hasn't seen them in a while. He must be worried that things aren't getting better."

That could certainly be part of it, Sakura thought. But she was sure that there must have been something else poking that stick up his butt. He wouldn't be being such a jerk to her if that was the only thing bothering him. She had been wondering for some time now if he had seen her kiss Eriol. If that was the case, it would certainly explain his extreme coolness towards her.

"It's possible," Sakura muttered, hoping that her father would drop it. She didn't feel like talking about Syaoran right now.

"If you could do me a favor..." Fujitaka trailed off, as if unsure whether he should finish.

"What's that?"

"Go easy on him?"

Sakura froze with a package of hotdog buns halfway out of the shopping bag. Did she hear him right? "Come again?"

"Go easy on him. He's going through a rough time right now and he really doesn't need to deal with your usual attitude with him, you know?"

Sakura couldn't believe her ears. Did her father even realize what he was saying? HER attitude?! She wasn't doing anything to Syaoran these days! He was the one giving her the silent treatment, not the other way around.

Besides, hadn't she had a similar conversation with her father not too long ago about her mother? Why was it that every time someone was going through something rough, her told HER to go easier on them? He said it like she was the root of everyone's unhappiness or something.

Anger churned in her stomach, a sick bubbling that made her think she might vomit.

What about her problems? She was a human with problems, just like Syaoran and her mother. Plus, it wasn't like she was acting exactly like her usual self. Why wasn't he paying more attention to her? Why wasn't he telling anyone to go easier on her? She knew they were selfish thoughts, but that didn't make them go away.

Her throat burned and for one terrifying second she thought she would cry. She hated crying in front of people – it made her feel weak and vulnerable.

Sakura took a breath and just like that, the emotions seemed to vanish – or at least squashed enough to ignore. She felt nothing except a dull ache in her belly.

"Sakura?"

"Uh, yea, I'll go easy on him," Sakura said and set the buns on the table. "I'm a lot more tired than I thought. I think I'm going to take a nap now before the party."

"Okay, Sweetie," Fujitaka said and went back to the task at hand.

Sakura left the kitchen and went up the stairs, through the hallway and into her room. She kicked off her shoes and crawled into her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. She just wanted to sleep now.

* * *

"Sakura? Wake up! Do you plan on sleeping though the party?"

If only, Sakura thought darkly.

"Well, fine. Be that way." Tomoyo sighed dramatically and flopped down onto the bed, jostling Sakura. "But your boyfriend is already here and talking to your parents..." There was still no response from Sakura. "…and your _brother_."

"What?!" Sakura asked and sat up so fast her head spun. "Argh, that wasn't smart."

Tomoyo giggled. "He seems nice enough. I wouldn't worry about it."

"So you met him already?" Sakura asked while trying to get her bearings. Her room was glowing slightly since the sun was just barely beginning to set and her eyes were having a bit of trouble adjusting.

"Yup. Cute if you like the glasses type," Tomoyo said, offhandedly. "He's just your type."

Sakura decided not to take that as an insult and dragged her butt out of bed. That nap was just what the doctor ordered! She was feeling much better now – not all weepy. She still felt a little tired and there was a knot in her stomach but that was probably just because she hadn't eaten anything since lunch.

She quickly changed out of her wrinkled clothes and ran a brush through her hair and was ready to go. Tomoyo eyed her plain shorts and t-shirt a bit disapprovingly. She herself was wearing a cute little yellow summer dress.

"What?" Sakura asked, not being able to resist the jibe. "I don't have anyone to impress. I already have a boyfriend, remember?" Plus, it was kind of a family event. That might be wrong. Of course, it wasn't like her track record was completely clean.

Tomoyo was unfazed. "I will soon if everything goes according to plan."

"Oh?"

"Nothing extravagant. Just a simple seduction." Tomoyo ginned wickedly and leaned forward so that her chest was pressed front and center.

"That's nice." Sakura yawned. She just couldn't summon the energy to care – even if it was talk about seducing her cousin and ex… well, not exactly ex-boyfriend but it was ex-something.

Thankfully, she was saved from having to say more by her brother.

"Sakura! Get down here already!" His booming voice called up to her room.

"I'm coming!" Sakura shouted back and motioned for Tomoyo to follow her as she left the room.

The two of them descended the stairs and joined the group of her family plus Eriol. Sakura felt a great surge of relief when Eriol met her eyes and smiled. Somehow, just seeing him was able to lift her spirits – he was her comfort zone.

"Oh good," Nadesico said when she saw Sakura. "Now we can go turn on the grill."

"You mean you're going to watch Dad light the grill?" Sakura asked, unable to help herself. Fujitaka chuckled slightly, but it didn't quite reach his face.

"Yes," Nadesico stated unabashed and then said to Eriol, "It was nice to meet you. You kids have fun!" And she walked away arm in arm with her husband.

The four of them were left there to stare at each other, each one unsure of what to say. Sakura looked uncomfortable, Tomoyo looked bored, Touya was obviously sizing Eriol up, and Eriol was just smiling pleasantly at all of them.

"Well…" Sakura started awkwardly. She fell silent when she realized she had absolutely nothing else to say.

"Where's Syaoran?" Tomoyo asked suddenly.

"That's a good question," Touya muttered. "He might be in his room."

"That's not fair!" Sakura cried. "He can't get to hide out during this party when you guys wouldn't let me."

"Aw, you weren't looking forward to it?" Eriol asked, although he already knew the answer. She had been complaining about it for a while now after all.

"No," Sakura said dryly.

"I guess I'll go get him," Touya said, seemingly put out.

Tomoyo perked up considerably. "I'll do it!"

Touya raised his eyebrows at her and glanced at Sakura. Sakura made extra sure that her face gave away nothing. "If you insist."

Tomoyo practically bound up the stairs.

"Let's go outside," Sakura said, pretty sure that she didn't want to be there when Syaoran left his room.

"You two go ahead," Touya said. "I'm going to call Yukito and make sure he's on his way."

Eriol waited until they were alone to say anything to her. "Your family seems nice."

"Just wait," Sakura said sourly. "It won't take long for them to show their true colors."

The two of them went outside to sit on the patio and watch Sakura's dad fight with the grill. Tomoyo and Syaoran joined them soon afterwards, Syaoran looking put out. He met Sakura's eye for the first time in over a week and Sakura really wished he hadn't. It was like he was trying to convey a silent message and she seriously doubted it was anything nice.

Sakura was immensely grateful for Tomoyo's talkative streak. It kept her from having to say too much and soon enough more guests began to trickle in. The party was practically in full swing by the time Sakura's final guest arrived.

"Hey! Meiling's here," Syaoran said suddenly, cutting Tomoyo off in the middle of her sentence. She seemed irritated but twisted around in her seat to see the newcomer just the same.

Meiling smiled when she saw them and walked over. She had chosen to wear her hair down and had on blue shorts and a red and white tank top.

"You look very festive," Sakura said when Meiling made it to their table.

"Naturally." Meiling winked and then turned towards Tomoyo. "I don't think we've met yet. I'm Meiling."

"I'm Tomoyo."

Tomoyo's voice and face were friendly enough, but something seemed off to Sakura. She just couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

"Shove over Syaoran," Meiling said bossily.

Syaoran raised his eyebrow skeptically. "And just why would I do that?"

"There are no more chairs and I feel weird being the only one standing," Meiling said simply and gave him the shooing motion with her hands.

"There's always the floor," Tomoyo suggested in a deceptively sweet voice.

Sensing that nothing good could come from the way Tomoyo and Meiling were staring each other down, Sakura jumped to her feet. "You can take my chair. I don't mind standing," She said quickly.

"You don't have to do that," Meiling said sincerely, in a lot less bossy tone. "I don't want to take your chair and make you stand."

"So it doesn't matter if I have to stand?" Syaoran asked.

"Pretty much."

"It's really okay," Sakura said. "I'm already standing now anyways."

"Yea, don't worry about it Meiling. Sakura can just share my chair," Eriol piped up and wrapped his arms around Sakura's waist, pulling her onto his lap.

All the blood rushed to Sakura's cheeks. She was pretty sure she had never been this uncomfortable in her life. Not in a literal sense of course, but the look that on Syaoran's face made her want to curl up in a ball and die. Meiling looked taken aback for a second but she recovered quickly.

"Well, it's all settled then!" She said and sat in Sakura's vacated chair.

Tomoyo simply smiled at the couple. "Well, aren't you two cute?"

"Thank you." Eriol just kept on grinning. Meanwhile, Sakura was trying very hard to stay still on his lap. She was uncomfortable and worried about if she was putting too much weight on his legs but was also reluctant to squirm around lest she feel… anything. At that thought, she subtly nudged her rear end closer to Eriol's knees.

"Hey, Sakura, what's up with your Dad's apron?" Tomoyo suddenly asked. Sakura was glad for the change in topic.

Sakura turned her attention to where her father was standing next to the grill with a spatula in hand and wearing his favorite "kick the cook" apron.

"Oh." Sakura laughed. "My mom made that for him after he gave us all food poisoning with his cooking."

Everyone's face fell.

Sakura quickly backtracked when she realized that probably wasn't a good story to tell when the said 'poisoner' was about to be cooking everyone's dinner.

"But don't worry – that was years and years ago!" Sakura laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood, but it just came out awkward. Sakura caught Syaoran's snort of laughter and couldn't help the amusement that crept across her face. He caught her looking at him and quickly wiped the smile off his face. Sakura mentally sighed. "Anyways, enough about that. Let's bring up a new topic!"

"That sounds like a plan." Meiling smiled brightly. "So let's talk about your pool."

"My pool?" Sakura echoed and looked at the body of water in the yard. That was a really random thing to bring up, but she supposed it had some relevance. The sun was almost completely set, so they had turned on the underwater pool lights to make it glow, making the pool the visual focus of the party.

"Yes, it's very nice. Do you go swimming a lot?"

"Not very much anymore. I'm not really home during the day," Sakura said truthfully. She felt Eriol's right hand come up and rest lightly on her waist. Outwardly, her attention was on the conversation but internally her attention had zeroed in on his hand.

"What about at night?" Meiling asked. Eriol began to rub a light circle with his index finger so Sakura wasn't paying attention to the second part of Meiling's question. "Have you ever gone skinny dipping?"

"Sometimes," Sakura answered absent mindedly. Eriol's fingers halted their movement. Meiling's laughter and the others' stunned silence jerked her back into reality. Tomoyo looked surprised, Eriol looked amused, but it was at Syaoran's enormous eyes that she began to feel like she was missing something. "Hold it. What did I just agree to doing?"

"Skinny dipping," Tomoyo reiterated for her.

"Oh!" Sakura felt the mortification begin to creep in. "No no no. I misunderstood the question. I've never been skinny dipping!"

"Oh really?" Meiling sounded a bit disappointed. "That's a shame. If I had a pool in my backyard that's the first thing I would do."

"I've never really thought about it," Sakura said truthfully.

"You will now. Some night when you are the only one home you will creep out here, strip down, and jump in!" Meiling exclaimed. Sakura laughed. She seriously doubted she would ever do something like that.

Normally, this would be the time that Syaoran would speak up and say 'You better hope no one is around to see that. You don't want to scar them for life!' or something of the sort. He would probably have been more original, but the point was that he remained silent. He didn't even care to make fun of her any more. It was a strangely disheartening thought.

"Isn't that your mom?" Eriol piped up, his question directed at Syaoran. Syaoran perked up when he noticed the woman Eriol was talking about.

"It sure is."

To Sakura's great relief, Syaoran's step-father was there as well. Without even realizing it, she had been very worried that there would be some sort of big scene today. There had been a serious concern that Syaoran's parents might not show up together, it was good that they did. It looked as if they were patching things up nicely, if their body language was anything to go by. It was beginning to seem like the night might go on without any major drama.

"I'm going to go say hi," Syaoran muttered and took off. Sakura had half a mind to do the same, but changed her mind. The three of them probably needed some time alone together.

Syaoran leaving was good for two reasons; it gave Sakura a chance to relax and… Sakura got her own seat!

Sakura hopped off of Eriol's lap, immediately missing his warmth yet not missing his knobby knees. Eriol laughed at her. "I take it your throne was a tad bit uncomfortable?"

"Just a little bit," Sakura acknowledged. "You're too bony."

"I bet he is," Meiling said suggestively. The rest of the table stared at her; slack jawed, until Eriol burst out laughing. Sakura grinned, but Tomoyo rolled her eyes.

"Nice." Eriol choked out between his laughter. "Very ladylike."

"I try."

"I think the food is ready," Tomoyo observed, putting a halt to all conversation. They were hungry and quickly went to get food. A line had already built up around the grill and by the time the small group had fixed their plates, some of the older guests had taken their table.

"Damn old people," Sakura grouched, trying to get comfortable on her piece of cement while shaking off the ants that were attacking her.

"Yea," Meiling added. "Their bones are already achy. They might as well sit on the floor!"

"At least they have margaritas to numb the pain," Sakura mentioned, noting the mixed drinks that her mother was passing out like candy. At least she wasn't stingy with her booze, Sakura thought wryly.

The night wore on and the group finished their food, Syaoran rejoining them at some point. Things were going pretty smoothly and Sakura would have been relaxed if it hadn't been for her mother. Sakura was watching Nadesico from her peripheral vision and it seemed her mother was well on her way to a killer hangover. At least her father was there to take care of her. Sakura sighed.

"Do you mind if I use your restroom?" Meiling asked suddenly, looking a bit sheepish.

"Nope, you have to hold it!" Sakura joked. Meiling glared in good humor and Sakura continued. "There's one on the first floor off of the hallway, and if that one's being used there's another on the second floor."

"Thanks," Meiling said and left, walking a bit funny after sitting on the cement for so long.

Eriol stretched his legs out, bumping Sakura with his foot. "Hmm, my legs are cramping up. Maybe we should get up and actually do something?" he suggested.

"I guess." Sakura really wondered what else there was to do. "My mom bought sparklers. We could do that I suppose."

"Sounds like a plan. Come on, Syaoran. Let's go get the sparklers!" Eriol said while getting on his feet.

Syaoran's eyes bugged out at him. "I don't remember volunteering for that."

Eriol gave him a small smile. "It's the gentlemanly thing to do. You're not going to?"

"Whatever," Syaoran said and got up. "Although I don't need lessons in that department from you."

"Sure sure."

The two of them walked away in search of sparklers, leaving Sakura and Tomoyo alone for the second time that day.

Tomoyo groaned and pulled at the hem of her dress. "This sucks. I'm not having any opportunity to be alone with Syaoran and put the plan into action."

"What about when you woke him up?" Sakura asked, genuinely curious.

"Once he saw it was me who was there to get him he practically flew out of the room," Tomoyo answered and heaved a sigh.

Sakura thought momentarily about clueing Tomoyo in on what that kind of elusive behavior meant, but discarded it immediately. Who was she to squash a girl's dreams? "So I take it that means you're not having any fun?"

"I didn't say that," Tomoyo assured her. "I'm just a bit frustrated with the situation. Your little friend isn't helping things either."

"Eriol?" Sakura was confused as to what Eriol had to do with anything.

"No," Tomoyo elaborated. "Meiling."

"Meiling? What about her?"

Tomoyo furrowed her brows at Sakura. "You honestly don't know? She's a big flirt with the way she talks. I'm surprised that it doesn't bother you. She's like that with Syaoran, but it really seems directed towards Eriol."

"What are you talking about?" Sakura tried to think back to the day's events but was having a hard time.

"You really didn't notice the look on her face when Eriol pulled you onto his lap? I thought she was going to stop breathing."

Sakura had noticed, but hadn't considered it that extreme. "She just seemed a little surprised. I can't blame her, I was too."

Tomoyo pursed her lips. "Sure, but there's also the way she bosses Syaoran around pretending to be all cutesy and always manages to make the conversation have some sort of a sexual undertone. The way she talks makes her out to be a cheap whore."

"I'm not a cheap whore." Sakura jerked around to see Meiling had returned from the bathroom at the worst possible moment. "Just a regular one."

She had made a joke, but the humor didn't quite reach her eyes. A wry smile twisted at the corner of her lips.

"Meiling-"

"Don't worry about it, Sakura," Meiling interrupted her apology. "You weren't the one who said it." She was staring Tomoyo in the eyes, who seemed bemused and not at all sorry.

"Woah, what did we miss?" Eriol asked, looking wary as he and Syaoran approached. They looked around at the group of girls.

"Nothing important," Meiling said simply and snatched a sparkler from Syaoran. "Let's light these bitches already!"

* * *

Sakura was uncomfortable to the point of sweating but she had absolutely no idea what to do about the situation. She was a bit surprised that Meiling was still hanging around, but eventually came to the conclusion that Meiling would see leaving as a sort of retreat or surrender to Tomoyo. And she would have none of that.

Meiling and Tomoyo were pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had happened but there was still a sense of unease about the group. The boys noticed it but had enough tact to stay out of girl squabbles. Sakura wished desperately that she could do the same, but there was no denying that she was already involved.

It didn't seem like Meiling blamed her for anything, but Sakura still felt awkward with her. It was like everything had changed. The knot in Sakura's stomach tightened more. She didn't want this. The whole thing was putting her on edge and making her snappy.

"Sakura!" Fujitaka called from where he was passing out drinks and Nadesico was sitting around and drinking them. Sakura walked over to them, glad to leave her group even if it was only for a few moments.

"What?"

"Would you mind going inside and getting the other bottle of tequila?" He asked, a smile on his face.

"What happened to the other two?" Sakura joked, trying to lighten her mood. "Did mom polish them off?"

The smile promptly disappeared from Fujitaka's face. "That's not funny," he said, his voice dangerously low. It was a tone Sakura had never heard from him in all of her seventeen years, not even when she was five years old and had used his work papers to make deformed paper dolls. All of the humor was gone from his face and Sakura finally noticed how worn out he looked. He met her eyes and she couldn't break the gaze.

"I've tried to tell this to you nicely but you just don't get it. I don't know what makes you think any of your crap is helpful, but you need to stop it. Now."

Sakura didn't know what to say and wasn't sure she would be able to if she did. Her throat was clogged by a lump and her blood felt ice cold. She could feel her face heating up from embarrassment and shame. She jerked her head in a nod to let him know she got it. Her neck was stiff.

"Good. Now, are you going to get the tequila like I asked?"

Sakura thought she was going to vomit when she opened her mouth to respond but instead choked out, "I-I don't know where it is."

"You should have just said so. Syaoran!" The sudden loudness in her dad's voice as he called for Syaoran made Sakura flinch.

"Yea?" Syaoran called back.

"Do you know where the tequila is?" Fujitaka asked.

"Sure do."

"Would you mind going to get it?"

"Not at all," Syaoran replied and made his way to the house. Tomoyo was hot on his heels. The pair of them walked by Sakura but Syaoran didn't even glance at her. However, Tomoyo caught her eye and winked before following Syaoran inside.

Fujitaka went back to serving drinks and Sakura made a hasty retreat. She didn't want to go back to Eriol and Meiling yet, but she also didn't know where to go. It seemed like there were people everywhere and she didn't want to talk to any of them. What she wanted to do was go up to her room and disappear. She couldn't though. It would be too weird since her guests were still there. She would just have to avoid anyone who would actually talk to her; she didn't think she would be able to in her current state. That worked for a little while at least.

"There you are," Eriol said, appearing from a crowd of guests and startling Sakura. "We were wondering where you disappeared to. Meiling's looking for you too." He got a good look at her face and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Sakura answered quickly. "I'm just not feeling well, that's all."

"Are you sure? I-"

"I'm sure," Sakura cut in. She didn't want him to ask. She was dangerously close to tears as it was and didn't want to think about it and be pushed over the edge. What she really needed was some time to collect herself. "I'm going to use the restroom. I'll be back."

"Okay," Eriol said slowly, not sounding sure at all but let her go just the same. Sakura was relieved.

Sakura gave herself a little mental pep talk as she walked through the yard and approached the house. She would go inside and splash some cold water on her face and then not think about anything for the rest of the night. She could do it. It was nothing.

Just as that particular thought was over, Sakura opened the door to the house and came face to face with Syaoran. She was just going to walk by him and continue with the plan, but he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her inside, shutting the door.

"Syaoran, I really don't need this right now," Sakura pleaded

He ignored it as if she hadn't said anything and when she noticed how furious he was, she had to wonder if he had even heard her at all. "What's the big idea?!"

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked, resigned to her fate that this was to be the worst day ever.

"I'm talking about you siccing Tomoyo on me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sakura made an attempt at playing stupid, and promptly regretted it. Syaoran's glare virtually pinned her to the wall.

"She practically mauled me in the kitchen! When I finally got her to stop and asked what she thought she was doing, she said that you set this whole thing up!"

Sakura could feel a migraine forming. "I did no such thing." Syaoran scoffed out of skepticism. "Not exactly."

"Then explain it to me 'exactly'."

"It's not as bad as you're trying to make it out to be." Sakura relented and just decided to tell him the truth. "She's been trying to get me to set you two up for a while now and I just said that this party would be a good opportunity for her to make a move."

"What is wrong with you?!" Syaoran fumed.

Sakura could feel the strain of the day wearing on her. She was in no mood to coddle him or his feelings at the moment. If anything, she wanted to be brutal so he would go away and leave her alone. "I don't know what the big deal is. It's not like you're dating anyone else."

In the silence, Sakura couldn't help but look up at his face. She really wished she hadn't. The hurt there was almost unbearable to look at. "You're a really cruel person," he said.

"Yea," Sakura said back. They stood like that, two people frozen in a moment that both of them would rather erase from their memories forever.

"Am I interrupting something?" Meiling asked, uncharacteristically timid. Her voice startled them from their private hell.

"No," Syaoran said. "I was just leaving."

There was silence in his wake. Meiling slid her eyes over to Sakura and studied her face. "Sorry about that, but Eriol wanted me to check on you. He said you weren't feeling well. Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Sakura said, forcing cheer into her voice. She did it rather well, all things considered. "You know how Syaoran is. He's always booty hurt about something!" She added a little laugh.

"Yea, I guess," Meiling said slowly.

"Anyway, I'm going to go to the bathroom now," Sakura said and walked to the first floor bathroom at as normal a pace as she could muster. It was occupied so she climbed the stairs and went into the second story one. It was blissfully empty.

Sakura turned the tap on to cold water and cupped her hands under the flow and quickly splashed the water on her face. It was freezing, a bit of a shock and somehow refreshing at the same time. Just what she needed. She was feeling better already.

The hand towel was missing so she just had to let it air dry. The water dripping down her neck and under her shirt, she looked at her reflection and was reminded of the camping trip after she had broken things off with Syaoran.

And suddenly she was overcome with uncontrollable sobs.

They came from nowhere. One second she was fine and the next tears were streaming down her face. She couldn't stop them. Then she couldn't breathe and began sobbing loudly. Afraid that someone would hear her, Sakura stuffed her fist in her mouth to muffle her sobs. The sound was quieted, but the actual sobs only got worse. She crumpled in on herself and fell to the floor.

As she feared, someone heard her because the door swung open. Sakura didn't dare look to see who it was. She was appalled at herself and so overcome with sadness that she couldn't stop and knew she must look pathetic. She didn't want anyone to see her like that. She'd always felt that way about crying.

The door closed and the lock clicked before the person fell to her knees and wrapped feminine arms around Sakura's shaking frame. Sakura looked up in shock, not expecting that at all.

Meiling's normally fierce eyes met hers, this time filled with something Sakura couldn't name. The tears had stopped momentarily, but wasted no more time in ravaging Sakura's small body. Sakura looked to the side out of shame but Meiling only pulled her closer to her soft chest, smothering her in the embrace.

Sakura gave in, grateful for the comfort and responded by wrapping her arms around the other girl. And that was how she stayed, sobbing into a girl's chest who she barely knew. The weirdest part was that after a while, Meiling started to cry right along with her.

* * *

"Wow, that's pretty messed up," Meiling said and dabbed at the corner of he eyes with a tissue. Sakura had just finished spilling her heart and soul to Meiling. She wasn't sure why she did it, but she told her everything, not leaving out any of the gory details.

Now that she had done it, Sakura was having second thoughts. She kind of wondered if that was what it felt like to have sex with a guy you barely know, after the fact when the adrenaline was gone - exposed and vulnerable.

Really, what did she know about Meiling? This probably ranked high on the stupidest things she had ever done. She had told her everything about Syaoran and Meiling was someone who was close to Eriol! She would have no one to blame but herself if Meiling told him.

"That about sums it up," Sakura answered, her voice scratchy from the effort of crying. "But why were you crying?"

Meiling appeared a bit sheepish. "Sympathy tears? I always hate watching people cry. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say empathy tears."

"What do you mean?"

Meiling seemed hesitant at first but sighed; giving in. "I guess it's only fair. You just bared your heart to me after all."

Now Sakura was dying of curiosity. "What is it?"

Meiling took a deep breath to steel herself for what she was about to say. "I always get like this when Eriol gets a new girlfriend he seems serious about."

There. It had been said. There was no taking it back.

"So you… like him?" Sakura asked timidly.

"Yea, long story short anyways." Meiling smiled ruefully to herself before realizing how she must have sounded. "But don't worry, he's not interested in me like that in the slightest. He's made that very clear. Painfully so, even. I know where I stand. I'm no threat to you."

"Why do you stay around him then?" Sakura couldn't help but ask.

Meiling chuckled a little. "I dunno. I must be masochistic or something. But I just can't make myself cut ties with him. Not even when I convinced myself I was over him and gave my virginity to this loser guy I work with."

Sakura didn't know what to say to that. That was a startling revelation from someone she wasn't even really close to. It made her realize just how personal of stuff she had just revealed to Meiling as well.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Occupied!" Meiling called out, just as she had the previous times it had happened.

The person on the other side of the door sighed. "Hurry!" The voice was unfamiliar, probably one of Sakura's relatives.

Meiling rolled her eyes, annoyed at the person's tenacity. "I'm constipated!" she yelled back, making Sakura snort in laughter. "It's going to be a while!"

The person left grumbling, and Meiling looked smug. However, she quickly got back to business. "At any rate," she began. "We can save my sob story for some other time. Right now, you are the person with the bigger problems."

"Well, gee, you really know how to make a gal feel better," Sakura teased.

"I'm going to tell you this because I like you," Meiling said, sobering Sakura up right away. "I'm not going to pretend like I have a clue what you should do about your parents, but I can help you out with your boy trouble."

"Oh?" Sakura was a tad afraid.

"You need to be straight with Syaoran," Meiling said simply. "That's it. There's no way around it. If you don't, you are only going to hurt him, you, and eventually Eriol."

"You make it sound easy."

"I didn't say it would be easy." Meiling looked at her seriously. "But that's the best advice I can give you. Just tell him what you told me and I think he will understand. I'm not even part of all this and _I _understand. I think you should have more faith in him."

"I really wish I could." Sakura sounded miserable even to herself.

"You said you really want to be with Eriol, but there's still part of you that wants Syaoran."

Sakura cringed at hearing her own words repeated back to her. "I know. I'm horrible."

"No you're not," Meiling assured her, and placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder. "There's no rule that you can only feel that way about one person at a time. It sucks but that's life. The real problem here is that you need to make up your mind and then be clear about your intentions."

Meiling made to stand up and Sakura grabbed onto her shorts. "Where are you going?"

"To lie to everyone that you're sick and going to bed. That way they don't see you. Your face looks like someone used it as a punching bag."

"Gee, thanks," Sakura muttered.

"No problem," Meiling said and dragged Sakura to her feet as well. "I promise you that I won't tell anyone about this. But remember what I told you. I really think it would do you good to at least get that taken care of."

"Thanks," Sakura said again, this time meaning it.

"Oh, and Sakura?" Meiling paused, her hand on the door knob. She twisted around to look at the green eyed girl. "If you ever need to talk to someone, I'm always available."

Sakura was on the verge of thanking her again, but Meiling had opened the door to reveal Syaoran standing on the other side. Both girls started out of shock.

"How long have you been standing there?" Meiling demanded.

"I just got here," Syaoran answered, his eyebrows furrowed. Annoyance turned to alarm when he got a good look at Sakura. "What's going on?"

Sakura made eye contact with Meiling and gathered her strength. "It's a long story."

"Sakura, you've been crying." Syaoran stated the obvious.

"Yeah, and I'll tell you all about it. Later." Syaoran looked like he was going to protest. Sakura beat him to the punch. "Come by my room after the party is over and everyone's gone to bed. We'll talk then."

Syaoran looked confused but nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'm going to bed now," Sakura said and walked by both of them. As she did, Meiling patted her back as a form of encouragement. Sakura smiled. It seemed she had finally found someone she could talk to.

* * *

Sakura stared at her ceiling in the darkness listening to the sounds of night. The party was long over and then she'd heard her family move around before going to bed. Her brother poked his head in at one point to check on her but she played possum and he left.

It was really late now and while she'd been in and out of sleep she was having a hard time going back now that she knew it was about time Syaoran appeared. That was assuming of course that he hadn't passed out.

Just as that particular thought crossed her mind, her bedroom door creaked open. Syaoran stuck his head through and whispered, "You awake?"

"Yup," Sakura answered, just as quiet.

Syaoran nodded and came in the room the rest of the way, shutting the door behind him. He stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. Sakura sat up and turned her lamp on to the lowest glow. Soft yellow light filled the room and she got a good look at him.

He looked the same as always. Perfect. And even now all she wanted to do was throw him down on the bed and have her way with him. Those kinds of thoughts scared her. That wasn't love.

Sakura swallowed the lump in her throat and patted the bed next to her for him to sit down on. He moved towards her and did, sitting so that he was perpendicular to her.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked at length.

"Yes." Sakura picked at her thumb nail, unsure of how to start. "I guess I just need to spit this out."

Syaoran nodded, not looking at her.

"Syaoran…" Sakura steeled herself, reminding her of her resolve earlier that day. "I have chosen Eriol and I'm going to stick to that decision."

Syaoran grunted, still not looking at her. "You wanted me to come here to tell me that?"

"And to tell you why," Sakura continued, trying to rip the proverbial Band-Aid off as quickly as possible. "Because I think I might really love him. And it's not that I don't love you in a way, but it's different."

"Different?" Syaoran asked quietly.

"Yea. When I'm with him I feel comfortable and happy and in control. But when I'm with you it's the opposite." Sakura stared at her hands, talking quickly. "I don't trust myself around you. I feel jittery all the time and it kind of hurts. I always want to kiss you and touch you and God only knows what else and I don't like it."

Syaoran turned around and raised an eyebrow at her. Sakura had the decency to blush and look away. "Okay, so maybe I like it too much. That's the problem." She let out a huge sigh. "I know I've said this before, but that just seems like _lust_ to me, not love."

"And…?"

"And maybe that wouldn't be a problem under normal circumstances, but we're cousins. Even if it's not by blood, we are still cousins. This would affect our family." Sakura desperately wanted him to understand, just like Meiling said he would. "Maybe they wouldn't mind if we were really in love, but come on! We're 17 for crying out loud. Can you honestly tell me that you're 100 percent sure what we feel isn't just lust?"

"I don't think it's just lust. I really care about you," Syaoran murmured, but not exactly answering her question.

"And I care about you too," Sakura agreed. "But what happens if this doesn't work out? We would still have to see each other at family gatherings. This doesn't just involve us. Your parents are having a hard time as it is, without us adding to it. And my mother hasn't been doing so hot lately either. I think the best thing to do is for us to stop while we're ahead and don't hate each other." When Syaoran didn't say anything Sakura couldn't stop herself from asking. "You don't hate me already, do you?"

Syaoran sighed deeply and twisted his body around so that he was facing her. "Of course not." He rolled his eyes heavenward. "Idiot."

Relief swept through Sakura's body. "Good."

Syaoran shifted his weight on the bed, moving closer to her. "Are you absolutely sure about all this?"

"Why?"

"Because this is it. If you tell me the one you want is Eriol, I will back off. I promise. But for me to do that, I can't hold on to this. I have to move on and we will just be like normal cousins. I'll date other girls. Can you handle that?"

Sakura's heart squeezed, with him looking intently into her eyes like that. "Yes. I'm sure," she finally said.

"Okay then." Syaoran lowered his head so that his hair was covering his eyes. Not being able to see his face clearly made Sakura nervous. And for good reason. When he looked up, there was intensity there. "Can I have a goodbye kiss?"

Sakura's breath caught and she didn't know what to do. Agree? Tell him to get the hell out of her room? Throw her arms around him? Scream? Die? She couldn't do any of that. So she didn't do anything.

Syaoran seemed to take her lack of a response as an affirmative because he braced his left hand on the other side of her legs so that he was leaning over her. He moved towards her, neither of them looking away or even breathing it seemed. He was so close. Time seemed to stand still except he was still creeping closer. Their breath mingled. Sakura's heart was pounding so hard it was echoing in her skull. She couldn't take it. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Nothing happened for a long time. Syaoran didn't move away or get any closer, but she could still feel him there. She was too terrified to look. Seconds ticked by feeling like minutes until Syaoran finally moved and Sakura felt his soft lips press against her forehead.

It was brief, but the feeling lingered even as Syaoran moved away and got off the bed. Sakura opened her eyes and watched him walk to her door. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and looked to the side.

"Sorry," he said quietly. "That was stupid of me. I think maybe you're right about all this." He turned and gave her a big smile that almost seemed sad but she could have just been imagining things. "Normal cousins from now on, right?"

Sakura nodded.

Syaoran turned around and walked out the door, closing it with a small click that seemed much louder to Sakura than it should have and also very final.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Fine. Put it in," Sakura said and leaned further into the sofa cushions.

"I don't want to!" Syaoran argued.

"Stop being a pansy and put it in already!"

"No. I just want to lay here and _you_ put it in!"

"What's going on in here?" Touya asked, coming into the living room and eyeing the pair of cousins on the sofa warily. "It sounds _wrong_."

Sakura couldn't resist the jibe. "Get your mind out of the gutter. I don't know what you do on this sofa with Syaoran, but that's not the case here." Syaoran wiggled over on the sofa more so he could reach Sakura and kick her on the thigh. "I let him pick out the movie we're going to watch, but he still refuses to get off his lazy bum and put it in the DVD player."

"_Let_ me?" Syaoran's voice was incredulous. "You _made_ me pick! And because of that, you should be the one to get up and put it in."

Touya rolled his eyes, refusing to be sucked into their childish antics. "Grow up. Both of you should get up and do something besides watch T.V. for a change. You are practically glued to those spots. I haven't seen you move all day!"

"That's not true." Syaoran shifted his weight in an attempt to get more comfortable. His body was leaving an imprint on the sofa and he was trying to even it out a bit. "I got up to go to the bathroom about half an hour ago."

"That's right!" Sakura chirped, enjoying the aghast look on her brother's face. He was one of those people that always felt like he had to be doing something. He just couldn't understand the joys of doing nothing. That was fine and everything, but it was the biggest difference between the two siblings. Sakura had been quite happy when she discovered that she and Syaoran shared a love of being lazy.

It was actually surprising how easy the transition from secret lovers back to normal cousins had been - at least on the surface. It was refreshing for Sakura to be natural around Syaoran and even Syaoran seemed to be doing a lot better. There was no more horrible tension or pressure and they found that they were able to enjoy one another's company. Neither of them missed the snapping or the hurt.

There were times it was still awkward. True to Syaoran's words, he had started dating again. It surprised Sakura how soon he jumped into things – mere days after the late night conversation in her room. It really shouldn't have, Syaoran had always been popular with girls. Knowing that she had absolutely no right to feel that way, Sakura had sucked it up. After all, she genuinely wanted him to be as happy as she was with Eriol.

There was an upside to his quick actions. Tomoyo had just assumed that Syaoran rejected her because he was already seeing another girl. Sakura didn't bother to correct her. She couldn't really see the point. It seemed Tomoyo had basically given up on him anyway after the beating her pride took at the Fourth of July party.

"Whatever." Touya moved so that he was hovering over Sakura. He poked her in the face just for good measure. "I have to go to work now."

Sakura puckered her lips with displeasure. "But it's not your normal shift."

"Nope." Touya shrugged his shoulders. "Someone calls in sick and I end up having to go in. Life sucks."

"Sure does," Sakura agreed. It seemed like way too much hassle for a crap paying job.

"And dad called. He's got a big case right now and said he won't be home until late." Touya sent warning glares at both of them. "So you two behave."

"Aww." Sakura flipped over so she was upside down on the couch. "Why did you have to go and say that? I was going to invite Eriol over and we were going to have sex on your bed."

Touya irately grabbed Sakura's ankles and shoved them over her head so she did a backwards roll off the sofa.

"That wasn't very nice," she said when she managed to regain her composure. "We were going to change the sheets. Honest."

Syaoran snorted.

"Geeze." Touya rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Who taught you how to talk like that?"

"Yo mama."

"You're going to give me stomach ulcers," Touya grumbled, his eyes flashing. "And you better not actually be having sex with that kid."

"Would I tell you the truth if I were?" Sakura said and then grabbed a pillow for protection as her brother had descended upon her. "I'm kidding! It's a joke! We're really not." She wacked him on the head with the small pillow for emphasis.

"Good." Touya stood up straight, towering over her. A lesser woman than Sakura would have been intimidated by his menacing form. "It better stay that way for his sake too."

"Ooooo… I'm so scared!" Sakura taunted. She knew it was the epitome of being childish, but if a person couldn't be childish with their siblings, then when could they?

Touya smirked and put his foot on her stomach, squashing her slightly. "You will be. Try not to be too loud, Squirt. Mom's still sleeping – she has to work tonight."

"Okay," Sakura squeaked out and breathed a sigh of relief when he removed his mammoth foot. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"

Once Touya was gone, Sakura and Syaoran were in the same predicament as they had been before he showed up. They looked at each other and said at the same time, "You put it in."

"I guess I'll do it," Sakura said, giving in. "Thanks to Touya, I'm already on the floor."

"Glad you finally saw reason." Syaoran stretched out, putting his feet on Sakura's spot and working out the kinks in his shoulder.

Sakura chose not to respond to that and instead located the DVD they were going to watch and popped open the case. She was about to put it in the player when she changed her mind. "Maybe Touya's right. Do you think we should get up and do something?"

"It doesn't matter." Syaoran yawned. "I'm going to have to get up in a little while anyways and get dressed."

Sakura twisted around so she could see him. "You're going somewhere?" This was the first she had heard of it.

"Yup, I got a date." He gave her a half smile.

"Oh." Sakura turned back around. "Is it the same girl as last time? Pikachu?"

Syaoran chuckled low in his throat. "Yes. And her name is Chiharu."

Sakura leaned back on her hands and tilted her head back so she could look at him upside down. "So I guess that means I have to entertain myself tonight. Puh." Eriol and Meiling were busy training for an upcoming tennis tournament and Tomoyo was at the beach with her family. Sakura had to wonder at how they all managed to be busy when she needed them.

"Do you remember how to do that?" Syaoran asked.

"Probably not." It was strange, but she hadn't had a lot of alone time recently. Once she got to thinking about it, it was probably a good opportunity to have some quality time with herself. Being around other people too much was bound to drive a person bonkers sooner or later. "Maybe I'll read or go swimming, or something."

"Good for you. Now put the movie in already!" Syaoran ordered, gesturing with his hands.

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him, but did it anyways.

* * *

The house was unearthly quiet. So much so in fact that it was starting to freak Sakura out a bit. She knew she wasn't technically alone in the house since her mother was still snoozing, but that really didn't make her feel any better.

The clock chimed eight o'clock and Sakura jumped so bad the book she had been reading went flying out of her hands. It landed on the floor with the cover shut, completely losing Sakura's place. She sighed and bent over to pick it up, wondering what was wrong with her. You would think she'd never been left alone in the house before. She thought she'd grown out of her fear of the dark years ago.

Sakura was flipping through the pages of her book, trying to find her place again when something crashed outside and the book went flying again.

"That's it," she muttered when her heart managed to decelerate. She got to her feet and placed the book down. If she couldn't stop jumping at every little sound, she would just have to drown them out.

Sakura climbed the stairs to the second floor and down the hallway before stopping in front of her door. All of a sudden she wished she'd had the foresight to flick the hallway light on. She could still see things because of the light from the first floor, but it was muted near her room.

She opened the door and was met with darkness. She could see nothing in her room and her heart accelerated again. It was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. She snaked her hand over to the light switch and flipped it up. Light flooded her eyes, but she saw with relief that the room was empty and everything was as it should have been.

Sakura had no reason why, but ever since she was a child she'd had a fear of turning on the light switch and there being someone in the room. She knew it was ridiculous, but the fear was still there.

Sakura chuckled and shook her head at how stupid she was being. She crossed the room in four long strides and snatched her new iPod off the dresser.

Sakura had returned to the living room and was about to sit down when she heard another sound again. Except this time the sound was coming from inside the house – or to be more specific – it was coming from the kitchen.

Sakura froze, not knowing what to do until the person in the kitchen coughed. Her body sagged in relief. It was just her mother. She smiled slightly and decided to go say hi. The two of them hadn't seen each other all day, after all.

When Sakura entered the kitchen, Nadesico was bent over and rummaging around in the refrigerator and didn't even notice.

"Hey mom!" Sakura chirped, not meaning to frighten her mother but doing it just the same. Nadesico jerked upwards and narrowly missed slamming her head on the bottom part of the freezer.

"Sakura! You scared me! When did you get home?" Nadesico asked, trying to sound normal, but her voice and the way she turned sideways to hide what was in her hand betrayed her.

"I've been home," Sakura said. Her cheery disposition evaporated. "What is that?"

"What is what?" Nadesico shut the fridge door and moved further away form her daughter.

Sakura knew what was in her hands, but didn't want to believe it. She stared at her mother's red rimmed eyes until Nadesico sighed and placed the beer can on the counter. She popped open the top with ease and took a big sip.

"Don't you have to work tonight?" Sakura asked. She was confused and wanted desperately to understand.

"Yeah." Nadesico took another gulp from the can. Sakura gaped at her.

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

"I was just going to have one or two." Nadesico leaned against the counter, turning her body away from Sakura. "It will have worn off by then."

Sakura hadn't even made up her mind about what she was going to do before her body was acting of its own accord. She snatched up her mother's beer and slowly moved to the sink. She tipped it upside down and watched as the yellowish liquid went down the drain. The simple action made her feel a bit better, but not nearly enough. The way her heart was hammering in her chest made her earlier fear of the dark seem like nothing. Her adrenaline was pumping to the max, but she was trying desperately to suppress it.

When the can was empty, Sakura turned around and strode over to the trash can and tossed it in the garbage. All of this she did with calm and controlled actions. Nadesico's eyes followed her every movement but she said nothing. Nothing about her countenance gave away what she was thinking.

Matching pairs of green eyes met in a calm staring contest of sorts. Neither of them said anything. Nadesico finally sighed and pushed away from the counter. She swung open the fridge door and began rummaging around again. When she straightened to the upright standing position, she had another beer in her hands.

"Mom!" Sakura said in a tone of voice she had never heard come out of her mouth before. It was a mix of anger and agony.

Nadesico apparently only heard the anger because she gave Sakura an irritated look as the popped the top to her new can. "Sakura." She put the can to her lips and tilted it up.

Sakura reached forward to grab the can from her mother's hands but Nadesico must have been anticipating that move, because she dodged Sakura's grab. "Mom, you can't do this." Anger had taken over Sakura's tone completely. She didn't think there was any room for another emotion, the way the rage was boiling inside of her.

"Sweetie, you're my daughter," Nadesico said. "Not my keeper."

"Don't call me that!" She couldn't stand to hear the pet name her parents called her come from her mother's lips at that moment. Hurt flashed across Nadesico's face but it was fleeting. She shrugged her shoulders and made to take another sip.

"Selfish," Sakura spat out.

"What ever you say, Sw-" Nadesico stopped herself. "Sakura." Apparently done with the conversation, she walked away from the kitchen.

Sakura stood alone, at a loss for what to do. It felt like a helpless situation. Still, the anger in her was far from gone and she felt like she needed to do something about it. So she followed her mother.

"You really ARE selfish!" Sakura said. Nadesico stopped and turned around, her eyebrow raised.

"You really want to continue this?"

Sakura continued as if she hadn't said anything. "You act like you are the only one this is affecting!" Nadesico said nothing so Sakura continued. "Touya might not say anything but I know this bothers him. He's a mama's boy – how could it not?"

Nadesico sat down at the dining room table and took another swig. She knew Sakura would follow her if she tried to leave, so she just sat there.

"And dad." Sakura paused, remembering her father's face and the way he talked to her at the party. She had partially deserved his irritation since she just kept pushing and pushing, but it was still abnormal for him to talk to her like that. It wasn't even that he'd actually said anything extremely cruel, but his disapproval of her cut her to the core. "I _know_ it is getting to him. He doesn't smile as much and he always looks so worn out."

Sakura could see that her words were having no affect on her mother and couldn't understand why. What was going on that had changed her so much? Up until that summer, her mother had been like her best friend - even more than Tomoyo had been. They would spend time together, Sakura would tell her all her secrets, and Nadesico would give her advice… up until the thing with Syaoran, _nothing_ had been a taboo subject between the two of them.

Sakura felt the anger leak from her bones and was instead consumed by an overwhelming sadness. She missed her mother. Though they fought like sisters, she had always thought they shared a special bond. Knowing that bond was in danger of being irreparable was probably the most painful thing she had ever experienced. It was flat out terrifying.

Sakura knew she was going to cry. And while she hated it (and feared that she was turning into a crybaby), she didn't feel the need to stop it. It felt different than the tears at the party. Those had been violent. These were silent and leaked from her eyes, requiring no effort on her part. They dripped off her face and down her shirt.

Because they were so effortless, Sakura was sure she could talk normally. Her mother wasn't looking at her anyways. "And I-" She was wrong. Her voice caught and cracked.

Nadesico's head snapped up, startled. Her red rimmed green eyes widened when she saw her daughter's tear soaked face.

Knowing that she was caught, Sakura forced words out of her mouth. It wasn't something she would normally do since she sounded high pitched and out of control when she was crying, but she didn't care at the moment. "It affects me too!"

Nadesico looked like a deer caught in headlights and still Sakura continued. "I miss my mom!" It was bad enough that she had to give up Syaoran, but she didn't want to lose her mother too. Her face crumpled in pain. "I may be seventeen, but I still need my mother!" Her voice had taken on a hysterical quality as she said her last sentence. "I need _you_!"

Nadesico stood up and the chair she had been occupying tipped over and landed on the linoleum with a crash. She made to reach forward and grab Sakura but then thought better of it. Sakura took a half step backwards and squeezed her eyes shut, the tears still going strong.

"Sakura…" Nadesico sounded so unsure of herself. "S-sweetie." Her voice cracked and Sakura opened her eyes to see Nadesico's eyes pooling with unshed tears. "I'm so sorry, baby."

That was good enough for her. Sakura launched herself at her mother's outstretched arms and buried her face in the soft cleavage. Meiling's body had been womanly and comforting, but it was nothing compared to Nadesico's inviting warmth.

Nadesico still smelled of alcohol, but Sakura didn't care at the moment. If she buried her nose deep enough she could smell her mother's original scent, soap and scented lotion. It was a comforting smell and it reminded Sakura of the past, before the events of the summer had occurred and her life had been forever changed. It was nice to pretend, even if for only a little while.

* * *

After that, the two of them had gathered all of the booze in the house and piled into Sakura's car, with Sakura at the wheel. They drove to a nearby convenience store and Sakura deposited all of it in a dumpster with a satisfying _thunk_.

Nadesico took a steaming hot bath when they returned to the house and then the two of them crawled into Nadesico's bed and chatted. They talked about all sorts of things that they'd missed out on with each other, but Sakura still didn't tell her about Syaoran. She also noticed that her mother didn't tell her what had started the drinking and wasn't about to ask. That was okay for now. Everything else was fair game.

"So, how's it going with your boyfriend?" Nadesico asked, her eyes glittering from the little light creeping in through the window. The rest of the room was dark.

"It's going well," Sakura answered, wondering how they had ended up talking about her again.

"That's good. So, how is he at kissing?"

"Mom!" Sakura blanched at her mother's bluntness. Nadesico giggled. Sakura couldn't help grinning either. "Let's just say, he knows what he's doing." And just to try and catch her mother off guard. "How is dad at kissing?"

Nadesico didn't take the bait. Instead, she looked like she was considering it. "He's definitely in the top five," she said after a while. "That is, after I taught him how." She winked.

Sakura's eyes bugged out. Nadesico laughed at her daughter's flabbergasted expression. "What? I had a lot of boyfriends before I met your father."

That was news to her. "Oh?"

"Yeah." Nadesico rolled over so she was on her back. "But they were mostly losers. I met your father in college and immediately fell for him. He was just so serious, but could also be a lot of fun. It's strange, I know. But I just felt like I could be myself around him. There was no need for fronts and he accepted me. Plus, it didn't hurt that he was such a cutie, with those glasses and everything."

Sakura listened to her mother talk, wondering why only now she was learning about all of this. It seemed like they shared a glasses fetish, Sakura mused, thinking about Eriol's spectacles.

"Who asked who out?" Sakura asked, really wanting to know.

"Oh, I did." Nadesico turned her head towards her daughter. "He was so shy and always the perfect gentleman, it was always me who made the first move. But once I got things going, he was more than happy to reciprocate." She wiggled her eyebrows and Sakura couldn't decide whether to laugh or feign disgust. It was her parents she was talking about, after all.

The events of the day finally took their toll on Sakura and she drifted off to sleep. She was woken up at some point and realized that her mother's warm body wasn't next to her anymore. She started to become alarmed until she heard the hushed voices of her mother and father.

She was still groggy with sleep, but peeked one eye open to see Nadesico wearing scrubs and Fujitaka in his suit. She didn't really hear what they were saying, but got the impression that it was something good because she saw them hug each other tightly. Sakura closed her eye when they started kissing, wanting to give them some semblance of privacy. While pretending to be asleep, she dozed off again.

The next time she awoke, there was different person sleeping next to her. Sakura stared at her father's sleeping face, enjoying how relaxed he looked at that moment. It took her a moment, but she realized that she was lying on his strong arm and using it as a pillow. It reminded her of when she was little and would crawl into her parents' bed. It was very comforting.

Still, no matter how hard she tried, Sakura could not fall back to sleep. She eventually gave in and carefully crawled out of bed, making sure not to wake her father. She crept out of the room and shut the door all without making a sound.

The house was completely black and Sakura wondered what time it was. There really was no telling. She made it to the living room by running her hands along the walls and was relieved when she finally located a light switch. The light was a lot brighter than she thought it was going to be and it felt like her corneas were burning out of her eyeballs.

"Ow," she mumbled to herself and willed her pupils to adjust. When they finally did she was able to look at the clock. 2:47 in the morning. Sakura sighed. It was too early to be up for the day, but she still didn't think she could sleep.

She noticed her cell phone sitting on the coffee table and reached for it. It was possible that Eriol had called while she was busy with her mother. She flipped it open and, sure enough, she had a missed call from him. Knowing that it was too late to return the call, Sakura exited out of that screen and another window popped up. 2 new messages. Curious, Sakura clicked on 'read'. The first one was from Tomoyo that read:

'_I got stung by a jellyfish ;_;'_

Sakura winced in sympathy. The second was from Meiling and a bit longer.

'_I bought a new kind of peppermint soap and got it in my ass crack and vagina. Now they tingle and I don't know if I like it!'_

Sakura burst into laughter at Meiling's audacity and almost dropped her phone. She definitely hadn't been expecting that. She made a mental note to respond to both of them in the morning and set her phone down.

Now what?

There wasn't really anything she felt like doing. Late night television was mostly crap, there wasn't anything she wanted to do on the computer, and she was tired of reading. She wasn't sure what else there was to do, especially at that time of night.

She finally decided that it was a perfect night for a late night dip in the pool. The day had been hot, the night was warm, and she was in an extremely good mood. Plus, she hadn't been swimming in a long time and was beginning to miss it. She would have to be quiet since her father, brother, and Syaoran were all sleeping, but she could deal with that. The silence was part of what made swimming at night so much fun.

Sakura went to her room to change into her bathing suit and grabbed a towel before heading to the backyard. She briefly considered turning on the underwater pool light, but dismissed it. It would be more fun without it.

Sakura set her towel aside and walked to the edge of the pool. She stuck her toe in the water, decided the temperature was acceptable and then slowly lowered herself into the water. It was a little cool, but still not bad.

Sakura put her head under the water and broke the surface, feeling refreshed. The water splashed around a bit, licking the sides of the pool. Sakura did the breaststroke around the pool once, getting a feel for it, before coming to a halt and changing to a backstroke.

She really couldn't believe her luck. So many things were going her way it was almost too good to be true. She had a great boyfriend, she was getting along well with Syaoran again, Meiling was fast becoming a close friend, she was reconciled with her father, and her mother had decided to quit drinking. Life was great.

It was then that Sakura remembered something Meiling had said at the party.

"_Have you ever gone skinny dipping?"_

Sakura paused, floating on her back and considering. Should she? _Could_ she? Did she even want to?

If she was being completely honest with herself, she was definitely curious. It was something she had never done before and while it wasn't exactly on her 'to do' list, Meiling had piqued her interest. It was just like Meiling said - once the idea was planted in her mind, Sakura was having a hard time discarding it.

If she was ever going to do it, now was the time. It was a dark night and everyone else was in bed.

Mind made up, Sakura swam back over to the shallow end and stood up. Trying not to lose her nerve, she twisted her arms around to untie the back of her top and deposited it on the sidewalk by the pool. Her breasts were free to the night air and they pebbled instantly. Sakura quickly slunk into the water, feeling embarrassed even though she was alone.

"Halfway there," she said to motivate herself. That being said, it took her a little longer to work up the courage to slide her bathing suit bottoms down her legs and put them next to her top.

It felt awkward and freeing at the same time. It was strange that taking off a couple tiny pieces of cloth could make the water feel so much different. It slid around in places she wasn't used to and she couldn't decide if it was a good thing or not, but it didn't matter. It was an experience for the sake of curiosity.

Gaining a little courage, Sakura moved further into the pool and away from her bathing suit. Testing things out, she pushed her feet off of the floor and swam around a bit. It was exhilarating!

Quickly getting the hang of things, Sakura swam around the pool and giggled softly to herself. It was a lot more fun than she thought it was going to be. It was odd how doing something even slightly taboo was able to get the adrenaline pumping.

Sakura came to a stop in the deep end and floated on her back, her boobs halfway out of the water. Sakura didn't care; she was beginning to be comfortable with her nakedness.

But, as we all know, all good things must come to an end.

The porch light flicked on.

Sakura froze, not quite believing what she was seeing. It took the back door opening for her to convince her body to move. She quickly sunk herself to the bottom of the pool. She stayed under there, mortified, until she ran out of air. She was forced to come to the surface.

Sakura stuck her head out, making sure to keep her body hidden. The porch light was far enough away so that it was impossible see the pool very well, so she wasn't too afraid. No one would be able to see what was going on under the water.

"Sakura?" A distinctly male voice called out. "Is that you?"

"Yes," Sakura hissed, finally registering in her brain who had interrupted her peaceful swim. "Of course it is!"

"Well, excuse me," Syaoran said, shutting the door. He took a few steps closer to the pool. Sakura started getting nervous. She wanted to tell him to stop, but figured that would alert him to the fact that something was going on. "I couldn't see you from over here. What are you doing?"

"Swimming. Nar." Her brain was whirling at a hundred miles an hour, trying to think of an inconspicuous way of getting rid of him.

"It's after three in the morning. You thought now was the best time for a little dip?" he asked and moved closer. Sakura gulped.

"I couldn't sleep," she said at last.

"Oh." Syaoran paused and Sakura relaxed a bit. It was premature. He started walking again and that time he made it all the way to the edge of the shallow end. "I heard about what happened with your mother."

"Um hum." Why did all her articulation have to go flying out of the window when she was panicking? It was so unfair. At least he wasn't standing right next to her bathing suit. Thank God for small miracles.

"It's good that she has decided to stop drinking. I-" Syaoran broke off and Sakura had a small stroke. A frown crossed his features and he moved toward her discarded bathing suit.

He got there and poked it with his foot. Not being able to tell what it was, Syaoran crouched down and picked up one of the pieces. When he held it up, Sakura noticed that it was the top piece. The strings and two small pieces of cloth dangled from his fingertips.

Syaoran stared at the bikini top for a long time until it registered what it was he was looking at. Surprise was his first reaction, but that quickly turned into amusement.

"Sakura, are you… naked?"

Sakura sank deeper into the water, her cheeks flaming. She wanted to drown herself. "Possibly."

Syaoran starting laughing but tried to keep it quiet. The effort of it made him clutch his side. "No wonder you are being uncharacteristically quiet!"

"Yea, yea. Just go away already!" Sakura commanded, trying to hold on to her dignity. It was probably futile anyway. It seemed like it always was in front of him.

He ignored her. "So, I guess Meiling was right. The temptation was too much." He stopped and seemed to consider it. "How is it?"

Sakura was taken aback. She considered lying, but figured there wasn't any point in it. "It's actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be."

"Really?" Syaoran said thoughtfully. He trailed off and Sakura stared at him. It seemed like he decided something, because he turned around and walked back to the house.

Sakura was a relieved and a little disappointed at the same time. She need not have been. Syaoran opened the door and reached inside to turn the porch light off. He used the moonlight to find his way back to the pool.

"Turn around or shut your eyes," he said simply.

"Huh?" Sakura asked stupidly. Syaoran didn't answer her. Instead, he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head. His smooth chest was exposed to the moonlight and Sakura knew she was gawking. When he hooked his fingers in the waistband of his pajama pants, she finally wised up to what was going on and turned around. It wasn't too much later that she heard the water splash against the side of the pool as he lowered himself into it.

"You're right," he said, and Sakura was relatively sure it was safe to look. Even so, she did it slowly. "This is kind of fun."

"Syaoran, I don't really think this is a good idea," Sakura said, very aware that they were both naked and within 20 feet of each other.

"You're worrying too much," Syaoran answered, knowing why she was uncomfortable. "It should be fine as long as we don't get too close to each other. The pool is pretty big and the water is dark. It's impossible to see anything."

"Well…" Sakura wasn't really ready to leave the water yet, and didn't feel right making him. She could be stubborn and make him leave anyway, but that required too much effort. "I guess it should be okay."

Syaoran smirked, but let the conversation die. The two of them floated around in the water, keeping a safe distance from each other. Sakura caught herself wondering what skinny dipping felt like for him. After all, his junk was free to float and bounce wherever it – she squashed that thought ruthlessly. Great. She really shouldn't be left alone with her thoughts. She needed to make conversation to keep her brain occupied.

Sakura asked the first thing that came to mind. "How was your date?" It surprised her. She shouldn't have even been thinking about that. What was wrong with her? Was she so determined to make things awkward between them?

"It went well," Syaoran answered without missing a beat. Sakura was thankful for that. It kept the situation from turning uncomfortable. "She cut our date short tonight though because her childhood friend called and was having a crisis."

"That's good it's going well." Sakura moved a little further away from him, determined to at least put some physical distance between them, if not figurative. "What's she like?"

"Hmm," Syaoran seemed to really think about it before answering. "She's a very blunt person and doesn't hold back how she feels. It's a nice change."

Sakura wondered if he meant it was a nice change from her. She couldn't blame him though; it was the truth. She could only imagine what her actions looked like from his point of view. The thought wasn't pretty.

Syaoran must have realized how that came out, because he continued quickly. "She's also very kind, even though she likes to pretend like she's not."

Sakura's mind wandered to the conversation she had with her mother before they fell asleep, about kissing. She hadn't ever taken the time to realize how strange it was that you could have many failures before finding the person right for you. It was such an obvious thing, but a revelation just the same. How many guys had kissed her mother, or perhaps thought they had a part in her future? How many guys would she herself kiss before finding the right one? Or how many girls would Syaoran kiss, for that matter?

"Have you k-" she broke off when she realized who she was talking to. She could almost _feel_ him raise his eyebrows at her in the dark.

"Have I kissed her yet?"

Sakura's face flamed with mortification. She was afraid to turn around. "You don't have to answer that! It just kind of slipped out."

Syaoran chuckled low in his throat. "It's alright, I don't mind. No, we haven't kissed yet. I like to go slow."

Sakura jerked around at that one. "Oh really? You could have fooled me." The sarcasm in her voice was impossible to miss. Slow? He had practically jumped her several times that summer!

Syaoran really did laugh at that one. "You have a point. I guess you were the exception to the rule."

"Why is that?" Sakura moved toward him unconsciously, to get a better look at his face in the moonlight.

"To tell you the truth, I did a lot of thinking that night after the party when I left your room." Syaoran sighed deeply. "And I hate to admit it, but you may have been right."

Syaoran looked up at the moon and Sakura got a good look at his side profile. She didn't say anything, just let him talk. He seemed like he needed to get something off of his chest. "I mean, this summer has been a very chaotic one. My mom and step-dad were arguing all the time. It wasn't like they yelled or anything, but there was always a thick tension between them. It was suffocating. I just had to get out. That's when your parents offered to let me stay here."

Sakura nodded. She could still remember when her parents had been talking about it. They saw Syaoran at a family dinner and noticed that he seemed off. Naturally, they wanted to do what they could to help – even if it meant sticking the eternally feuding pair (Syaoran and Sakura) under one roof. She also remembered not being thrilled at the news.

"Everything was so different at your house. Fujitaka and Nadesico treated me so kind, but I was still basically living with a bunch of strangers. After all, I have spent a good chunk of my life with just my mother. I wasn't used to being away from her. I _felt_ like an outsider and an invasion on your lives. To tell the truth, I was planning on going home for a while there."

"What made you change your mind?" Sakura asked, curious beyond all measure. Syaoran turned his head quickly and caught her eye.

"You."

Sakura choked on air. "Me?"

Syaoran laughed at her response. "Yea, you."

"What did I do?"

"You treated me exactly the same as always. Of course, that means you treated me like an annoyance, but that's beside the point. It made me feel normal. And before long, people seemed to catch on to your attitude, and began to relax around me. Everything became normal."

Sakura felt a little bad at the way he phrased that. Like he thought he meant nothing to her. "But Touya treated you that way too."

"Yes," Syaoran agreed. "But Touya didn't flounce around the house in a tank top and underwear, or just a towel. You do realize that it was the first time I had been around that kind of thing? I don't have any sisters, so it was completely new for me to see all the sides of a girl close to my age."

"Oh… I see." She didn't know what else to say, and caught herself thinking back to all the things she had worn in front of him. The thought made her a little queasy.

"Every time I shut my eyes I would see your bare legs, or your shirt creeping up on your stomach when you laid on the sofa, or the way you would arch your back when you stretched."

Sakura flushed, but couldn't think of anything to say. At that moment, she had never felt more like a tease.

"So you naturally became the star of my… fantasies." Sakura wanted to die. "But I think it was really just because I was around you too much, and I was seeing so _much_ of you. I ended up projecting on you in real life." Syaoran furrowed his eyebrows and glared at the water.

"I can't believe how I almost ruined everything by acting on those impulses. When I think about it, I get so mad at myself! I never realized how much you are a constant in my life until I tried to ignore you." He looked in her direction, remorse in his features. "I'm really sorry about all of that. I don't want you to have to tiptoe around me anymore. I just want us to stay good friends, because you are important to me." Syaoran wrapped it up and fell silent. Neither of them moved much, so even the water stayed silent.

Syaoran was important to her, too. Before that summer, she barely spared him a stray thought, but things had changed so much. Sakura couldn't imagine her life without him in it. The thought was just so _wrong_. Without ever realizing it, the two of them had entwined their lives so deeply – so much so, that to detach themselves from one another would leave a void. If it weren't for the occasional urge to jump his bones, she would have considered the feelings she had for him as sisterly. She needed him in her life the same way she needed her mother, father, and brother. She didn't ever want to jeopardize that.

"I'm glad we can agree on something," Sakura said at length. And then, to lighten the mood, she added, "So, does this mean I'm allowed to grill you about your personal life?"

Syaoran cracked a smile. "Only if I'm allowed to do the same."

Sakura blanched. "I'm going to have to think about that one."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"How about I omit at my own discretion?" Sakura offered. Syaoran shrugged.

"Like I could stop you." He smirked and Sakura got the impression he was about to test her. "Got big plans for tomorrow?"

She couldn't really see how that was prying, but okay. "I'm probably going to Eriol's house. It's his parent's anniversary so they are going out to celebrate."

"So it's just going to be the two of you?" Syaoran wiggled his eyebrows. She squirmed under his insinuation.

"His sister is going to be there!" Sakura said quickly. It was true, but she almost felt like she was covering something up. The way Syaoran was looking at her skeptically wasn't helping.

"Uh huh."

"What about you?" Sakura challenged, hoping to throw it back in his face.

Syaoran shook his head. "No hot date for me, I'm afraid. I'm going to spend the day with my parents. It's been a while, after all."

"Oh," Sakura said, feeling stupid. She opened her mouth unsure about what she was going to say, but was saved by a gigantic yawn. "Goodness. I guess I'm still a bit sleepy. I better get out now. I'm getting pruny anyway."

"Okay, I guess I will too," Syaoran said and watched as she swam over to her discarded bathing suit. Sakura raised an eyebrow at him when she caught him staring.

"Do you mind?" she asked playfully.

Syaoran chuckled and turned around. "Sorry. My mind wandered."

"I bet."

Suit securely in place, Sakura hoisted herself out of the water and onto the sidewalk. As she was toweling off, a thought occurred to her. It was quickly followed by another, more devious thought.

"You don't have a towel."

Syaoran didn't move. "Oh damn. You're right."

"And I'm betting you don't want to put your pajamas back on when you're still wet." Sakura rubbed the towel through her hair, trying to get rid of as much excess moisture as possible. She was careful to keep her eyes away from him, afraid that she wouldn't be able to keep a straight face until the punch line.

"Also true."

Sakura let out a fake long-suffering sigh. "I suppose I could let you use mine, since I'm done with it."

Syaoran moved closer to side of the pool where Sakura was standing. "How kind of you. You can just leave it there."

A smirk slowly spread across Sakura's face. After all, it wouldn't have characteristic for her to do such a good deed without some ulterior motive. "I don't think I will."

"What?" Syaoran asked dumbly, but Sakura was already walking back toward the house.

She reached the door and sent one last smirk in his direction, before dropping the towel on the mat and entering the house.

"Night, Syaoran." She shut the door, giggling at his flabbergasted expression. He was just too much fun to mess with.

* * *

Sakura was still on an emotional high from her good fortune when she went over to Eriol's house the next day.

They were sitting on the sofa together and watching a movie, and she couldn't have been happier. Life was great! The saying "too good to be true" was niggling in the back of her mind, but she stubbornly ignored it. She wouldn't let anything rain on her parade!

Sakura got the feeling she was being watched, so she turned her head and saw that Eriol was staring at her and grinning widely.

"What?" she asked, wondering if there was something on her face.

"Nothing," he said and leaned in toward her. "It's just so great so see you happy. It's a nice change."

"Was I really that bad?" Sakura asked, but knew the truth. She hadn't ever snapped at Eriol, but her mood had been grouchy for some time. "Never mind. Sorry."

Eriol chuckled. "Don't be sorry." He reached out to tug on a strand of her hair, his eyes never leaving hers. He always did that when he talked. It had a way of sucking her in. "I knew you were going through some hard times. There's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I wish I could agree." Sakura winced when she thought about some of her behavior. And what was worse was that she acted that way toward the people who were most important in her life. It was one of life's little jokes, how easy it was to put things into perspective when you weren't in the middle of it. "I can be a real… bitch sometimes."

"Let's just say you were tempestuous," Eriol said, unable to keep the humor out of his voice.

"Big word," Sakura acknowledged. Had she been violent? She couldn't remember.

She was snapped out of her musings when Eriol's hand left her hair and moved down the side of her face. He dragged his thumb over her bottom lip. "It's just good to see you _really_ smiling again."

Sakura's breath caught and her heart hammered in her chest. How was he able to get her so flustered with just one simple action?

But, as most moments are, it was ruined.

"Well, well, well…" A girly voice cooed. "What's going on in here?"

Unlike Sakura, Eriol didn't jerk around at the newcomer's voice. He dropped his hand slowly from her mouth, and rested it over her hand instead. Only then did he bother to address his sister. "Nothing at all. Just watching a movie, as you can see." He gestured to the television for emphasis.

"Uh huh. Sure." Nakuru rolled her eyes, not believing one word of it. She didn't seem to care though. "Would one of you mind zipping me up?" The question brought attention to her clothes. Her dress didn't seem to be the type someone would wear around the house.

"Sure." Sakura stood up to help her.

Eriol regarded his sister curiously. "Going somewhere?"

Nakuru pulled her hair over her shoulder to get it out of Sakura's way. "Of course. You didn't really think I would stay here all night, did you?" Sakura yanked the zipper up and fastened the clasp.

Eriol shrugged his shoulders. "I guess not. You're just going to leave us two here. All alone?"

"I trust you," Nakuru said, completely disregarding what she had just walked in on. Or appeared to, at first. "I know you won't do anything Sakura doesn't want." She winked at Sakura, who flushed crimson.

"Oh, what would our parents say about you going out tonight?" Eriol faked concern.

Nakuru narrowed her eyes at her little brother briefly. "They won't have _anything_ to say, if you know what's good for you."

"Scary," Eriol mocked.

Nakuru didn't say anything else, returning to all smiles. She turned around and grabbed Sakura by the shoulders before planting a kiss on her cheek. "You take care of that little punk, okay?"

Sakura nodded and Nakuru flounced out of the house, calling over her shoulder, "You two have fun now. Don't do anything I wouldn't!" And she was gone.

Sakura flopped back down on her spot on the sofa and turned to her boyfriend. "So, I take it that means you don't want to be alone with me?"

Eriol was genuinely amused. "It's not that. There's just too much temptation when no one else is around." He smiled his Cheshire cat smile. "I would hate to scare you off."

"Oh, okay," Sakura said, for lack of anything better to say. He was always the perfect gentleman around her. She wondered what was really going on in his head all the time.

They turned their attention back to the movie, and after a while Sakura caught herself feeling somewhat… disappointed? She slid her eyes over to Eriol, trying to figure out where those emotions were coming from. With dawning horror, it occurred to her. She _wanted_ him to give in to temptation!

"What?" he asked, noticing her stare. Her bug-eyed expression registered in his eyes. "Is something wrong?" Sakura shook her head quickly, not wanting to alarm him. "What is it then?"

She didn't know the best way to phrase what was going on her head so that she wouldn't be embarrassed, so she did the only thing she could think of. She leaned over and kissed him.

Eriol recovered from his surprise quickly and responded to her kiss, falling into the familiar motion with her. It was nice, but Sakura wanted more. She realized that she was going to have to be the one to initiate things. With that, she put more urgency in her kiss, leaning into him.

Eriol's body stiffened with shock. Sakura was almost afraid that she had crossed some line, but he gained control of his senses and responded with as much enthusiasm as she had initiated. Their kisses had a whole new feeling now.

The change from kiss to make-out happened quickly. Sakura sat back into a more relaxed position and Eriol moved with her. She lost her balance and fell on her back. He still moved with her, his body on top of her. He must have realized what he was doing, because he broke the kiss and pulled away from her slightly. "Sorry, Sakura, I-"

But he didn't get to finish. Sakura reached up and nuzzled his neck, effectively cutting him off. She pulled away to get a good look at his face. Confused dark eyes met bright green. Sakura nodded and he smiled slightly before pushing her on her back and pressing himself against her.

Hot hands moved up and down her sides, provoking goose bumps. His lips were on her neck, the heat was everywhere. Sakura moved her legs so he could lie between them comfortably and raised her hips unconsciously. Eriol moaned and ground into her, brushing against something nice. She couldn't stop the whimper of approval from leaving her lips.

Sakura wrapped her arms around Eriol's torso and slipped her hands under the edge of his shirt. Cool hands met warm flesh. It only heightened the excitement.

The two of them moved together, with only their clothes keeping them separated. At one point, Eriol hitched Sakura's leg around his hip so he could hit a better angle that had her gasping for air.

It was great and Sakura was enjoying herself immensely, but the intensity was starting to be too much for her. It was almost painful, but still pleasurable at the same time. She wasn't one hundred percent sure she wanted it to end. She was once again left to wonder if she was a masochist.

"Ow," she finally said, when it seemed her pelvis had had enough.

Eriol promptly froze. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, it's just kinda starting to hurt. Sorry."

Eriol rolled off of her, so that he was between her and the back of the sofa. He wrapped his arm around her waist so she wouldn't fall off the edge. "Don't be sorry. There's nothing to be sorry about."

Sakura sighed contentedly and snuggled closer to him. He stiffened up. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No. Just… don't squirm so much."

"Oh." Sakura giggled and he poked her in the side for enjoying his predicament. Eriol nuzzled the side of her face and placed a tender kiss on her cheekbone and Sakura couldn't have been more content.

* * *

Sakura hummed a light tune as she turned the key to the front door. She was in such a good mood that it didn't even bother her when the door stuck and she had to force it open with her hip.

The house was dark, so she just assumed everyone was in bed. That suited her just fine. She was still a bit embarrassed from what she had done that evening and wasn't sure if it would show on her face around other people.

Eriol was great. They spent the rest of the night talking, watching a movie, and just enjoying being with each other. They had plans to get together the next day as well.

Sakura didn't turn on any lights when she got to the second floor, secure in the knowledge that she could feel along the walls to get to her room. That way, she wouldn't run the risk of waking anyone else up.

She made it to her room and swung the door open. Right before she turned on the light, she got the strange feeling that she always did. She really was paranoid. She flipped the switch.

Someone was sitting on her bed.

Fear consumed her for one terrifying second and she barely managed to keep from screaming bloody murder. Even though she had just had the scare of her life, there was no reason to alert her family. It was just Syaoran, after all.

Her first reaction was annoyance. What was he doing sitting in her dark room like that? Her second was embarrassment. After all, she had just spent the evening heavily making out with her boyfriend and could even still smell him on her clothes. Nevertheless, the first reaction was stronger.

Sakura was about to tear him a new one for scaring her like that, until she got a good look at his face. He wasn't looking at her, his eyes were trained on the bed. But she could see that his face was pale and full of some emotion she wasn't sure of. His whole body language radiated some sort of upset.

"Syaoran?" Sakura said timidly. "What's going on?"

Haunted eyes moved up and latched onto her. Sakura couldn't move and didn't want to. She didn't know what to do. Somehow, she knew that her fortune had come to an end before he even said anything.

"My parents are getting a divorce."

* * *

**Kitty Neko: How much do you hate me now? haha**

**I went through and proofread everything again so there are some small changes. Mainly just grammatical. But I decided to get rid of all of my author's notes, so I'm going to put everything important right here.**

**1. Yes, the Fourth of July is an American holiday. So sue me. **

**2. Your eyes don't decieve you - this is a Syaoran and Sakura story. Eventually.**

**3. I am quite aware that Nadesico is spelled Nadeshiko in CardCaptor Sakura, but I started spelling it in this story as it is spelled in Martian Successor Nadesico and I don't feel like changing it. Mainly because there were a couple of rude people involved.**

**4. Natsu means summer.**

**That's it for this time. I hope you enjoyed it!  
**


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